Staff at Southport and Ormskirk hospitals have been overwhelmed with the support from the local communities of Southport, Formby and West Lancashire.

Chief Executive Trish Armstrong-Child said: “The last few weeks have been challenging and we know things are far from over.  But we have been inundated with offers of help from our local community.  We have had many potential volunteers get in touch, retired staff returning to work and delivery after delivery of kind gifts for our hard-working teams, hand-made scrubs, care packages for staff and patients – the list is very long!

“We want to say a huge thank you to all the incredibly generous, selfless people in our community who are doing so much to keep us going.   We all feel very supported right now.”

However, the Trust is asking that no further hot or fresh food deliveries such as takeaways and pizza are brought into the hospitals for  staff without prior arrangement.

Bridget Lees, Director of Infection Prevention and Control, said: “These donations are thoughtful and extremely kind but unplanned fresh and cooked food deliveries have the potential to compromise our systems of infection prevention. It is also important we control access to our hospitals during the period of the pandemic.

“Donations of all kinds should be arranged in advance by emailing soh-tr.info@nhs.net.

Trish added: “We would also like to add our thanks to all those other key workers who are keeping things going out there – shop workers, bus, train and taxi drivers, carers, social workers, everyone at the local council, the ambulance service, teachers who are still looking after our children … the list is endless and growing all the time.

“We are seeing such amazing teamwork across our community. It makes me confident that we can get through this together.”