Martlets 24-hour Patient Helpline Service Receives £100,000 Funding boost from Barclays COVID-19 Community Aid Package
Martlets, the Brighton and Hove hospice care charity has received £100,000 to fund its telephone patient and carer support service from Barclays 100 x 100 Community Relief fund, part of the Barclays COVID-19 Community Aid Package. The Barclays Community Relief fund was launched to provide support in the heart of local communities offering charities one of 250 donations of £100,000. Martlets was granted one of these donations having successfully demonstrated that they were able to provide impactful, on-the-ground support for their local community through their helpline service. The helpline is a 24-hour, 7-day a week telephone service, staffed by trained clinical teams providing assistance to patients with terminal illness and their families and carers.
Martlets patients are vulnerable and are often isolated at home, despite the world opening up again this isolation will continue for many patients and carers. The impact of COVID-19 continues to be felt, and Barclays were looking for ways to meet the needs of local communities as they emerge from the pandemic including offering help for people experiencing mental and physical health issues – this criteria was specifically met by Martlets’ telephone service.
Martlets supports both patients, families and loved ones with the impact of living with a terminal illness. The majority of care is provided in people’s own homes by community nursing teams, it also includes access to the 24-hour access telephone service. Martlets has seen a huge increase in demand for this telephone service and has struggled to meet the rising demand – calls have almost doubled due to COVID-19 from 24,245 in 2019/20 to 43,323 during 2020/2021.
The funding from Barclays will enable Martlets to increase the number of nurses available to answer calls during daytime, evenings and overnight. Often evening and overnight callers are ‘in crisis’ and one call away from dialling 999 and being taken to hospital. Martlets will be able to provide the advice, help and reassurance people need to overcome their crisis and ensure that everyone is given the right help when they need it.
Susi Owusu, Partnerships and Philanthropy Manager at Martlets commented: “The news of this funding from Barclays has been wonderful and come at such an important time for us as we try to meet the rising demand for our services. This donation will transform our capacity to staff our hub so that we can provide a truly wrap around specialist service for people in need.
“We know that 2am is a very lonely place when you are caring for someone who is dying. We also know that giving the right clinical advice and support can help to keep patients out of hospital and save them distress, enabling them to stay at home where they want to be. This 24-hour support has become increasingly important as health resources are stretched and there continues to be huge pressure on the NHS. Our aim is to be there for whenever our patients and their loved ones need us, and we are so grateful to Barclays for this incredible donation to help us run this service at full capacity.”
Commenting on the announcement, Nigel Higgins, Barclays Chairman, said:
“Our 100×100 charity partners have been working tirelessly to support vulnerable communities across the UK through what has been a difficult time. These charities have championed a range of causes, including tackling homelessness, food poverty or loneliness, and we are immensely grateful for their work in the communities in which we live and work.
“It is evident that the effects of the pandemic will continue to be felt by many for some time to come. Our decision to extend our 100×100 Programme for a second time reflects this, allowing Barclays to support 250 UK grassroots charities in their crucial work in our local communities.”
