Leeds Cares hospital charity receives £100,000 donation from Deliveroo

Leeds Cares, the charity which supports the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, was presented with the donation by the food delivery service on Friday, November 6.

The company described the donation is a "small gesture to express the enormous gratitude of Deliveroo customers towards NHS staff for their incredible efforts to keep the nation safe during the pandemic."

Esther Wakeman, Chief Executive of Leeds Cares, said: “We are so grateful to receive this amazing donation of £100,000 from Deliveroo who are going above and beyond to support the NHS across the United Kingdom.

“This is an extremely difficult time for everyone.

"Our events have had to be cancelled and our income is down, yet our hospitals need us more than ever.

"This generous donation will have an immediate impact on allowing us to support NHS staff, patients and families across Leeds.

"On behalf of everyone at Leeds Cares, thank you for your support.”

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Hilary Benn MP, Labour MP for Leeds Central, also expressed his support for the donation.

Mr Benn said: “I’m sure this donation from Deliveroo will be put to good use in supporting the incredible work being done by all NHS staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to make sure that they themselves are cared for as they put themselves on the line for us day after day.

“I also want to thank all those who donated through Deliveroo’s “Support Our NHS” fund over the last few months for their support for NHS staff in Leeds.”

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The campaign - Supporting the NHS - delivered 750,000 meals to NHS workers earlier this year, delivering to NHS workers’ homes through vouchers and directly to hospitals - including more than 7,000 meals to Leeds Cares.

The food delivery company re-launched the campaign this week and is committed to supporting the NHS through the winter and the pandemic.

The Trust is one of five NHS Trusts across the UK to receive a donation from Deliveroo.

The £100,000 donation to Leeds Cares will be an unrestricted donation to support a range of health and wellbeing initiatives for NHS staff at the Trust.

Will Shu, CEO and founder of Deliveroo, said: “NHS staff have played an invaluable role in keeping us and our loved ones safe during the pandemic.

"As a British business we feel duty-bound to use our network to support the NHS staff who are working night and day and face a difficult winter.

"That’s why our customers have been so incredibly generous, showing their enormous gratitude for all the amazing staff at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.”

There are more Covid patients currently in Leeds Hospitals than at the peak of the pandemic, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust recently announced.

The trust said there are 263 patients currently in their beds who have tested positive for Covid - including 22 in intensive care.

Managers said the pressure on beds has become "far greater than in the first wave".

The trust said they are "currently working very hard to ensure they treat as many patients as possible" - while ensuring they provide a safe hospital environment.

In a statement released on Tuesday, October 26 the trust said: "Not only is the number of COVID cases increasing but so is the rate of increase.

"Local modelling based on prevalence data indicates that it may continue to rise for the next two weeks

"We are using evidence gained during the first wave of the pandemic to increase capacity on a planned and phased basis to deal with rising numbers of COVID patients.

"Our current overall bed occupancy is far greater than in the first wave so there is very significant pressure on our inpatient capacity."

The trust are standing down some planned operations due to current pressures in the hospital.

Some patients will have their treatment postponed, with only essential operations going ahead in most cases.

The trust continued: "We have stopped elective inpatient orthopaedics at Chapel Allerton completely and we have begun a rolling programme of theatre closures to increase critical care capacity.

"We expect this to continue throughout the week, which means some difficult decisions as we prioritise cases of higher urgency.

"We are prioritising urgent treatments, including cancer operations.

"Currently, we have around 1800 inpatient beds in our two main hospitals, St James’s and Leeds General Infirmary, (including critical care beds) supporting care for two groups of inpatients: acute/emergency referrals or patients admitted through A&E, including COVID-19 patients; and planned admissions for scheduled operations or procedures.

"We make hundreds of clinical decisions daily, on a case by case basis, about how beds are allocated in order to balance emergency care demand, including COVID, against our need to treat patients waiting for scheduled operations

"We are working with our partners in health and social care to discharge people who are medically fit to leave hospital."

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