Health care company donates £8,000 to Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust

The funding from health care cash plan provider, Sovereign, has been used for staff training and wellbeing programmes, to provide patients and staff with emotional and practical support to deal with the ongoing impact of the pandemic, and to buy specialist equipment to support patient treatment.

The Sovereign donation has boosted funding for NHS patients and staff in a year where NHS services have continued to face sustained pressures.

In total, Sovereign has donated more than £183,000 to the NHS in Yorkshire since the pandemic began.

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust Deputy Chief Nurse, Lindsay Rudge, said: “We are immensely grateful for Sovereign’s continued donations in support of our nursing workforce.

"In 2021, as well as purchasing pressure ulcer training equipment, we used the funding to produce a creative video to capture and demonstrate how nurses and midwives have made a difference to patients, families and carers as part of our relaunch of our Nursing Strategy.

"We were also able to send a small number of colleagues to the prestigious Nursing Times Awards finals where we had two finalists.”

Sovereign actively donates the equivalent of between 5 and 10 per cent of its annual turnover through its Community Programme, which supports charities, groups and organisations that work to improve the health and wellbeing of those living in West Yorkshire.

The NHS is a major beneficiary of this programme, with Sovereign donating almost £2.2 million to NHS organisations over the last 15 years.

Russ Piper, chief executive of Sovereign Health Care, said: “Our region’s amazing NHS staff continue to deliver fantastic care despite almost two years of relentless pressure, and it is more important now than ever before that we provide practical support to them and the patients they serve.

“Our commitment to local people’s health and wellbeing goes back to the principles we were founded upon almost 150 years ago. We are proud to continue to deliver on this and to be able to help fund essential training along with initiatives that make patients’ experience of hospital stays easier and more comfortable in such tough times.”

Alongside Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, other Trusts receiving donations in 2021 included Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, and Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

The funding supported programmes including: education and psychological support to help nursing staff manage professional and personal challenges experienced during the ongoing pandemic; extra comforts for patients who have spent the last year in hospital; a programme to help patients keep in contact with loved ones during the pandemic when visiting was restricted; and specialist training and equipment for nurses and midwives.

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