Walkie Talkies to fight COVID-19

by Asthma Innovation Research (AIR) in London, England, United Kingdom

Walkie Talkies to fight COVID-19

Total raised £9,755

raised so far

+ est. £1376.25 Gift Aid

107

supporters

PPE keeps our NHS safe but makes telecommunications between staff difficult. Walkie talkies are a solution and can help to save lives.

by Asthma Innovation Research (AIR) in London, England, United Kingdom

We're still collecting donations

On the 12th May 2020 we'd raised £9,755 with 107 supporters in 28 days. But as every pound matters, we're continuing to collect donations from supporters.

 New stretch target

This will allow to support even more hospitals and frontline staff throughout the UK!


PPE keeps our NHS safe but makes telecommunications between staff difficult. Walkie talkies are a solution and can help to save lives.


Asthma Innovation Research (AIR -www.asthmainnovationresearch.co.uk) is a registered charity created by doctors and medical students whose mission is to improve the lives of asthmatics through education and innovation. However we are turning our attention to support NHS staff to fight COVID-19.


Why are we crowdfunding?


Many of our team work in frontline NHS services. We have noticed that it has become difficult to communicate effectively among frontline teams during the crisis for two main reasons:

 1) When wearing full PPE in the COVID units, it is not possible to use normal methods of communication (phones and pagers) to contact the rest of your team outside the COVID/full PPE area;

2) The teams are spread out further than normal across make-shift intensive care units and more patients are rapidly deteriorating requiring swift communication to redeploy teams to different locations.

To combat this, several units have started using walkie talkie radios, as recently seen on the BBC’s “Coronavirus: Inside an ICU fighting Covid-19” at UCLH.  These enable the front line staff to rapidly contact each other for advice or help and to coordinate the teams. 


But don’t just take it from us


We are already helping NHS staff at the following hospitals with walkie talkies:

  • Whittington Hospital, London - to help improve communication in the emergency department, ITU and the COVID isolated respiratory resus rooms.
  • St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London - to help the physiotherapist team coordinate staff and resources across several critical care units over three floors. 
  • The John Radcliffe, Oxford  - to help theatre staff wearing full PPE to communicate with non-COVID workforce. 
  • Whipps Cross Hospital, London - to help team communication in the ITU.


BUT MORE HOSPITALS NEED OUR HELP!  We have received several requests for walkie talkies and have no doubt that many more hospitals in the UK are in need. With your generous donations we will continue to provide NHS staff and departments with the BaoFeng BF-88E walkie talkie (or equivalent).  These lightweight radios have sufficient range capable of aiding communication and are easy to clean and so remain hygienic. They are tried and proven to work well. 

These will make sure our amazing NHS staff are equipped to deliver the excellent level of care required during this difficult time.    


If you are a healthcare professional reading this and feel your department would benefit then please complete our request form here and get in contact via [email protected].  Let us help YOU!

 *Any money raised that cannot be used to supply radios to NHS frontline services will be donated to NHS Charities Together (www.nhscharitiestogether.co.uk) in support of the COVID-19 appeal.

We ask project owners to honour their rewards wherever possible but please note that all pledges are donations and there is no guarantee that you will receive any rewards from the project owner. Please see Crowdfunder's Terms of Use for more information regarding rewards for pledges.

Rewards

This project offered rewards

£100 or more

10 handsets

This will provide NHS staff with 10 handsets which is enough for a 10 to 20 bed ITU.

£10 or more

THANK YOU

A massive thank you from us all at AIR.

£25 or more

2 handsets

Your money will provide 2 handsets for NHS staff to use on the front line.

£50 or more

4 handsets

This will provide sufficient handsets for a COVID response team in a small emergency department.

£200 or more

20 handsets

This will provide NHS staff 20 handsets which is enough handsets for a 20 to 30 plus bed ITU

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