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LONDON, March 30 (Reuters) - Britain's temporary hospitals
are seeking volunteers from airlines, calling on cabin crew
members who are currently grounded to use their first-aid skills
and calm manner to help get the new Nightingale hospitals up and
running.
Ashley Brown, 23, will soon swap easyJet's orange-trimmed
grey suit and waistcoat for the blue plastic overalls of
personal protective equipment after he signed up to help the
National Health Service (NHS) fight coronavirus.
His first aid training and security clearance mean he is a
desirable recruit for the new hospitals, as does his experience
working in what can be a high-stress environment.
"When you're at 38,000 feet in the air and something does go
wrong, which isn't often, but obviously, medically, things do go
wrong, you have to think on your feet," said Brown.
Britain is building three new hospitals in London,
Birmingham and Manchester, which it is naming after nursing
pioneer Florence Nightingale, to cope with an expected surge in
coronavirus patients, but it needs back-up staff.
EasyJet has written to 9,000 staff, and Virgin Atlantic to
around 4,000, to ask them to consider volunteering at a time
when they cannot do their day jobs because air travel has come
to a standstill.
EasyJet said on Monday it had parked up all its 344 planes
and laid off UK-based cabin crew for two months, meaning they
will not work from April 1, but will get 80% of their average
pay under a state job-retention scheme.
The NHS said volunteers would receive training and help
doctors and nurses with changing beds and other non-clinical
tasks.
Brown, who formerly worked for an NHS Trust in its
stop-smoking services, says he loves the cabin crew job he's
been doing for the past three years and is realistic about the
pay cut he faces over the coming months.
"It is what it is, at the end of the day. I want to keep
flying, I want to keep my job, the same as everybody else, so
we're all more than happy to support our airline to get to where
we need to be to return to flying," he said.
Asked about the risk of potentially being exposed to the
virus by going into the new hospitals, he says the worry will be
there in the back of his mind, but that's no different from his
day job.
"The job I do, I have to think about safety every single
day," he said.
(Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Stephen Addison)
