Charity launches digital hub to support healthcare workers during Covid

An NHS workers charity has launched a bespoke digital platform to give NHS staff access to essential services including counselling and financial assistance.

Health Workers’ Foundation (HWF) has launched Healthchain, a hub that connects frontline workers and NHS staff to goods and services provided by the charity.

The digital platform, which is also being developed into an app, will be available to all healthcare staff, including porters, cleaners, care home workers and community staff.

It will provide staff with free or discounted services from HWF including financial assistance, childcare grants, PPE, and counselling and therapy sessions.

In the future the charity plans to expand the platform to offer third-party services, ranging from transport, financial services to food and clothing lines, and will provide NHS staff with exclusive offers.

Dr Jeeves Wijesuriya, a spokesperson at the Healthcare Workers’ Foundation said: “The pressure placed on NHS workers over the past 11 months has been unimaginable. From fatigue, anxiety, burn-out, set against a backdrop of struggling to meet unprecedented demand for patients, the launch of something like Healthchain is long overdue.

“We want to take the pressure off NHS workers and provide a single, easy-to-access hub where they can get hold of essential support and resources which will help them, so they can continue to help you.

“Healthchain will do just that, and as we continue to develop the service, we only hope to see more health workers benefit from the platform.”

HWF is also working with third-party organisations including Harley Therapy, Medics Money, Doctors in Distress and Ally to provide staff with access to much needed goods, PPE and services.

To-date it has raised more than £1.2 million to help support NHS and frontline staff. Through its partners at Harley Therapy it has delivered more than £30,000 worth of free counselling sessions, in addition to providing NHS workers with more than £170,000 in childcare grants.

If you’re a healthcare worker and would like to sign-up to Healthchain, you can do so via the website here by using an NHS email address.

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