Special messages of thanks from South Holland’s NHS staff to local community

South Holland’s grateful NHS staff have thanked the local community for their kindness and support during lockdown with the publication of a special brochure. 

Teams based at Johnson Community Hospital in Spalding say they were overwhelmed by the ‘remarkable’ kindness they received as the community pulled together in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The brochure, which has been printed for free by local firm Welland Print, is signed with personal messages from staff from Welland Ward, the Outpatients department, the community nursing team, midwifery team, mental health team, ambulance colleagues, property services and Spalding GP Surgery.

It also lists the individuals and companies who were among those to make donations and a selection of photographs from the hospital team.

Sally Brown, Outpatients clinical team lead at Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (LCHS), said: “This year has been a remarkable year in so many ways and not least in the response and kindness shown to NHS colleagues across the different organisations working from Johnson Community Hospital.

“We are so grateful for all of the donations and best wishes we received throughout the lockdown period and beyond. Among the many gifts we received were fruit and vegetable boxes, Easter eggs, toiletries, meals, chocolates, flowers, visors, home-made scrubs, uniform bags and generous care packages from the Spalding Covid Kindness Team.

“We wanted to put together this brochure from all of the teams here to show how much we appreciated everything the community has done for us and to reflect on how uplifting the support has been during such difficult and uncertain times.”

Among those to be presented with a copy of the brochure was Morrison’s Pinchbeck store community champion Gail Ridley, who was also given a personalised piece of word art by Welland Print.

Sally added: “Gail was a driving force behind many of the donations given to teams based at Johnson Community Hospital as part of her role and in her own time. We hope this small token of our gratitude helps to recognise how she went above and beyond her role as one of the individuals who worked tirelessly to help the community.”