Clive Myrtle from BBC news spent a week with the staff at the Royal London Hospital. I hope you can access a summary of this on BBCiplayer under the heading London and the Second Wave. It will also be featured on BBC news on Wednesday 03/02 and Friday 05/02 at 0330. It features our own Consultant Dr Marie Healy and other staff revealing the incredible work that they are doing and the enormous stress they are under. Staff well being is paramount so we hope that the Fresh Fruit we are supplying will help albeit in a very small way but I know very much appreciated.

We are now in the highest tier of Lockdown, with 1 in 50 of the population with the COVID virus. We are all awaiting vaccination but as you know this could take time. Meanwhile the Staff at Barts and the London have had to look after increasing numbers of COVID patients both in the wards and in Intensive Care. North East Thames has the highest density of cases in the country and Barts Health is the major teaching hospital with a responsibility to support the DGHs which are under enormous pressure.

There is unprecedented pressure on the critical care teams. Many are tired and stressed and it is expected that they will have to stretch even more to care for the increase in numbers of patients who require admission over the coming weeks. They have had to recruit more staff from all areas of the hospital. The 3 new wards at the Royal London on the 15th floor are now all open (120 beds) and it is predicted they will need to open even more beds. Many staff are off sick themselves with COVID or have family contacts who are isolating which stretches the staff even more.

We are still delivering the Fruit Boxes twice a week to back up what the NHS is providing. We would like to increase the number of deliveries if possible. Please give if you can spare it (we still have about £1000 left in the kitty after 9 months thanks to your generous support but that will be used up quickly if we increase our boxes)

Royal London and Barts Hospital Heroes site has been created to provide fresh fruit boxes for Intensive Care night staff on both sites. They have expanded to 3 times their normal capacity to cover the Covid 19 emergency and we know they are working tirelessly. We all remember those nights - endless hours , no cafetaria services and just rubbish to eat. Please donate generously to help.

We are thrilled to have had a donation of an initial £2500 to this fund from the Marie Celeste Samaritan Society ( as organised by Dr Andrew Paris ex Consultant Urologist, RLH.)

grateful thanks to you all

Kate Wark

The night staff at RLH enjoying the box of fruit - mostly eaten by the looks of it

Monday 11 May An Update

You may have seen the BBC News tonight as the RLH is opening a new very large ward ( maximum of 174 beds) to take all the COVID patients from North East London so that general work can restart in the rest of the Hospital. We will continue to provide the fruit boxes twice a week to both sites for some months yet thanks to your generosity. We may alter how we allocate the boxes in the future.in view of this.

I’m sorry if I’ve misled all of you as there is free food available for all staff on both sites and that has been available since the beginning but it is heavily oversubscribed and difficult to access for those with limited time. Our fruit boxes are continuing to provide a healthy option for all staff especially those working at night. Thankyou all again for your generous support. It is really appreciated.

Thursday 21st May

“Many thanks again for your generosity and kindness. I don't think you quite realise what a difference these have made!! The fruit is really lovely.

We now have a Covid-19 ICU on the 15th floor, and have our usual "clean" ICU on the 4th floor back again. There are doctors and nursing staff resting on both floors. It would be great to have a box for each floor on the ICU if that is possible. The staff certainly appreciating this.” From PJ Zolfaghari Intensive Care Consultant. Royal London Hospital

and from Barts

”Another lovely box of fruit arrived today which I collected and took to the 2nd Floor. Lovely plums, big oranges, bananas and grapes etc.”

Thank you so much for your kindness.

Sunday 24th May

So, in spite of the reported decrease in numbers of cases the staff are still working hard especially with their new designated unit so we will cover that too. Many of the other donators are now pulling out but thanks to all of you we have the funds to continue.

Tuesday 26th May

BBC reporter Clive Myrie recently spent time at The Royal London, after receiving sign-off from NHSE colleagues. The result is a set of stories that present an honest and candid look inside how the virus is affecting our diverse staff, patients, families and local community as we enter our new normal. It positively presents the hospital as an anchor institution in the community.

There will be short 6pm and long 10pm national news pieces airing tonight, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week. A trailer can be viewed here: https://twitter.com/CliveMyrieBBC/status/1265159482864173056. News pieces will also be translated to Persian (Farsi) and Bengali and a 30 minute piece has been commissioned using the existing footage, however I’m not sure when/where this will appear.

To note: one of the pieces also has a balanced focus on those disproportionately affected, including BAME. And Clive additionally spent time at the East London Mosque and a local morgue which are weaved into the coverage.

from PJZolfaghari

29.10.20

An Update--Today the Staff at the Royal London have opened their Covid Intensive Care on the 15th floor again this week. Numbers of critically ill patients with Covid are gradually increasing and this facility will help the hospital to segregate patients with Covid from those needing planned surgery and those needing other emergency care. Patients from surrounding hospitals will also be cared for here and it may also form part of the London Nightingale response if needed. This is a huge step and will require a whole new level of staffing but hopefully this will help keep the rest of the hospital safe. These patients are seriously ill and require very intensive nursing and medical care including multi organ support, specialised ventilation and and proning and many require prolonged stay in critical care. The staff will need to deliver this care while working in full PPE.

We have responded to this move by increasing the fruit boxes to cover this ward also. We have usually supply fruit boxes on 2 days per week and we have continued this since March because of your very generous support. We hope we can continue to do this for the foreseeable future.

The réponse immediately from Dr Parjam Zofaghari when he heard about this plan was "Many many thanks for the generous fruit boxes. They are fab as always. Please extend our thanks to the rest of the team. We have opened the 15th floor today, so it would be great to have a box going to the 15th floor"

29.11.20

The staff at The Royal London are continuing to care for increasing numbers of sick patients with COVID-19 and they are using the additional capacity on the bespoke new critical care unit on the 15th floor once again . We hear that numbers in London are starting to fall with the lockdown but Redbridge and Havering in the North East still have very high numbers and the Trust is providing a key part of the North East London response to this. Compared to the previous lockdown the difference this time is that our hospitals are trying to maintain the elective programme as well as catch up on the large backlog following the first wave and our operating theatres are working at full capacity dealing with the emergency work as well as elective. The staff are doing their best to maintain all these services simultaneously which is quite a challenge. The hospital always tries to focus on staff wellbeing in spite of the stresses and the wonderful fruit boxes are always greatly appreciated.

Thankyou all for your continued support

Kate Wark

04/01/2021

We've all heard the PM tonight. I have increased our target for funds. We need to increase our Fruitboxes to help the staff in these hospitals. Both hospitals are under severe strain currently. They have had to increase their numbers of COVID intensive care beds (currently120 beds in their COVID Intensive care) way beyond anything imagined while it is so difficult to recruit more staff. We have all seen the news. The staff are under extreme pressure and morale is extremely low. They have recently lost one of their own nurses to COVID. Everyone is working so hard and there are even Consultants from other specialties offering to work nurses shifts. Many trainees have been reallocated to intensive care from other specialties. Staff well-being and health is paramount so we will continue to supply the fruit boxes but we'd like to increase the frequency

Please dig deep again --you have all been so generous

many thanks

Kate Wark.

Monday 01/02/21

Clive Myrtle from BBC news spent a week with the staff at the Royal London Hospital. I hope you can access a summary of this on BBCiplayer under the heading London and the Second Wave. It will also be featured on BBC news on Wednesday 03/02 and Friday 05/02 at 0330. It features our own Consultant Dr Marie Healy and other staff revealing the incredible work that they are doing and the enormous stress they are under. Staff well being is paramount so we hope that the Fresh Fruit we are supplying will help albeit in a very small way.

We have been providing this fruit since 17/04/20. I hope we can continue for at least a year and beyond because I suspect this virus isn’t going away for a while.

Thankyou all for your amazing generosity

Kate Wark

01/03/2021

The good news is that most of us have had the first part of the vaccine. Also, the numbers in Intensive care at the Royal London have reduced but are more than twice their normal occupancy. They now have 95 cases requiring Intensive Care of which 55 have a diagnosis of COVID.--a higher level than in the first wave. This have implications for staffing levels and for trying to return the hospital to its normal routine.

The fruit boxes are still enjoyed on both sites and we continue to deliver twice weekly. In mid May, we will have been providing these boxes for a year continuously. Thankyou for all your generous donations and once again the Marie Celeste Samaritan Society has given us a large sum of money to help us continue. We will keep going for as long as we can.

I can't thank you all enough

Kate Wark

12/05/2021

The last and final delivery of fresh fruit to the Staff at the Royal London and Barts will be tomorrow. Thankyou to all your generous donations, we‘ve been able to continue for over a year. Lets hopevwe are on the way out now. Thankyou also to Lucy Hamer at the Royal London, Jordan Rappaport and Rosemary Shewry at Barts who have very kindly delivered the boxes to the Staff. Also, thankyou to the Eatfruit Company for the quality of their fruit. Good luck to all of you from Kate Wark