Aylesbury Nuffield Health Personal Trainer joins the NHS fight with Buckinghamshire NHS Trust

28 employees from Nuffield Health have been seconded into family liaison, clerical, operational and administrative positions including COVID-19 swabbing to support the NHS Trust’s efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nuffield Health have a gym in Aylesbury in Fairford Leys.

The employees joined the NHS Trust team in January, seconded into Stoke Mandeville, Amersham and Wycombe hospitals.

The employees chose to be seconded into the NHS Trust team after being furloughed due to Nuffield Health’s UK network of fitness and wellbeing centres and clinical services being closed due to current government restrictions.

Sam Moya, Wellbeing Personal Trainer at Nuffield Health’s Fitness and Wellbeing Centre in Aylesbury, explains: “I’m a marshal for the COVID-19 vaccinations at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

"I take a register of each person who attends for their vaccination and hand them a consent form to complete prior to them entering the building where the vaccine is administered. I also help deliver food and refreshments to the NHS team working on the wards with COVID-19 patients, the NHS team are always extremely grateful.

"I chose to support the NHS by volunteering for a secondment at Stoke Mandeville Hospital because I felt the free time I had acquired due to being furloughed would be best utilised by helping where it is needed the most.

"I am not the type of person who can stand by and watch as others are hard at work, I believe this stems from my time spent serving in the military, you learn very soon that the

best way to get a difficult task completed is when everyone pulls together."

Sam also wanted to encourage anybody who works for Nuffield Health to get involved.

He said: "To anyone at Nuffield Health who is considering supporting the NHS, I would say this: In our current circumstances and the way this virus has dominated our lives for the past year, your help, no matter what form that comes in, will be greatly appreciated.

"Once we have this virus under control and we return to our normal lives, you can proudly say you played a small part in getting everyone there."

Tunde Adewopo, Divisional Director of Specialist Services at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust says: “Partnering with Nuffield Health locally to be able to bring some of their employees to work with us at the Trust couldn’t be more timely.

"They will be able to contribute to the national effort to fight the pandemic by filling essential administrative, clerical and operational roles, or by acting as family liaisons. This will support our medical and nursing colleagues, helping to free up their time and enabling them to focus even more on caring for our patients, who are at the heart of everything we do.”

Nuffield Health’s Charity and Medical Director, Dr Davina Deniszczyc, states: “As the UK’s largest healthcare charity, we’re proud our people are supporting Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are in a unique position within the healthcare sector to utilise our people’s broad range of expertise, across clinical, fitness and mental health to support NHS Trusts and our people are excited to be working alongside their NHS colleagues.

"This initiative builds on our hospitals continuing support to NHS trusts across the UK, so far over 230,000 NHS patients have been cared for by our hospital teams during the pandemic and our nurseries have cared for the children of NHS key workers. We have also launched a free, specialist COVID-19 rehabilitation programme with NHS trusts to support patients in their recovery."