After the most stressful time the NHS has ever seen, staff at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead have been getting first class treatment from airline cabin crew and tour guides as part of the continuing Project Wingman scheme.
Set up at the height of the pandemic in spring 2020 - when the travel industry had ground to a halt - the project sees staffers from airlines and across the travel industry volunteer to give NHS staff "a little respite" during their days.
The deluxe Project Wingman double-decker bus has been parked in the grounds of the QE over the last week, while it's also visited the Gateshead Health NHS Trust's other sites like Bensham Hospital in order to look after staff.
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Using transferable skills honed over years working at 30,000 feet, the Wingman staff help give refreshments, space to chat and health and wellbeing support to the NHS workers.
This comes a year after more than 20 Project Wingman volunteers were hired by the Trust across various roles.
One of those staff is Erika Koltai - who used to work for British Airways but is now employed by the Trust. She told ChronicleLive: "It's been amazing for us to be here. Speaking personally, it's helped my mental health and wellbeing and it's about being part of the family. We have seen staff here at rock bottom, we really have, and it's all been about supporting them however we can."
Erika, who lives in Durham, said the QE had been an "amazing support" and she had been delighted to swap careers during the pandemic after being furloughed. We have all these transferable skills which we can use to help the NHS. We're all highly-trained, we're advanced first-aiders, it's all useful. The Trust really believed in us, 22 of us even got jobs here."
Another Project Wingman volunteer is Martin Wiggham. The 23-year-old was brought up in Low Fell, just minutes from the QE, and he first began working at the hospital when he was 17.
He's also spent three years jetting around the world as cabin crew with BA - but is now part-time in that job, and works part-time as a health care assistant at the QE.
Martin said he has seen the hospital through a traumatic time. He said: "I started here when I was 17. We have all supported each other and all of the people working here are just incredible."
Another volunteer is Richard Henderson - but his day job isn't in the skies, the West Monkseaton man is usually working as a tour guide taking sightseers on trips down the west coast of the USA.
Richard said: "A good friend of mine was working with Project Wingman down south and she said to me to come along. The people who help - like us - find it so rewarding. We are giving something back to the wonderful NHS family - and all the staff deserve whatever we can give them."
Mags, a member of physio staff, was one of those taking advantage of the Wingman facilities. She said: "I think it's brilliant. It's been so tough for us over the last couple of years and it's nice to have somewhere like this to come."
Another to be involved in the project is Gateshead native Simon Costello - a DJ on the Travel.Radio station and former cabin crew himself. Now an NHS care assistant, Simon was also involved in founding the Not Just Crew initiative to support airline staff when the travel industry was in trouble during the pandemic.
He said: "Project Wingman was such a brilliant thing to be involved it, at the height of the pandemic there were more than 5,000 volunteers. Our NHS staff are still facing unprecedented pressure and work long, long hours so it’s as important now as it was then to keep providing that support, and the Wingman Bus provides much needed accommodation. I am so proud to be involved in the return visit to Gatehead."
Lisa Crichton-Jones - the Gateshead Health NHS Trust's director of people - said: "The health and wellbeing of our staff has never been more important. Taking in the context of the past few months and the challenges of the pandemic, staff are still working exceptionally hard, and it's so important that we give them the space they need to look after themselves.
"One of things they have told us over the pandemic is how important it is for them to have some time away from the wards - or just a break if they're community teams. This gives staff the time to refresh, to reflect and to talk to one another and decompress. We have had really positive feedback."
The Project Wingman team had previously visited the QE twice before, including to distribute care packages on the wards during autumn 2021.
