Boris Johnson launches Ukraine Christmas appeal with Lincoln private hospital

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has launched an urgent Ukraine Hospitals Christmas appeal in partnership with The Lincoln Hospital as doctors plead ‘don’t forget us’.

Boris Johnson has teamed up with the private hospital located on Nettleham Road, which is part of Circle Health Group, to launch an urgent appeal for medical supplies for Ukraine health facilities treating the sick and injured, warning that they face running out of vital items such as bandages and defibrillators within weeks without donations.

He recently visited the Enfield warehouse where supplies are gathered from The Lincoln Hospital with the Ukrainian Ambassador to see first-hand the logistics of transporting hospital kit in bulk across Europe by lorry.

Make a donation to the appeal here

Boris was briefed by Ukrainian doctors helping to co-ordinate relief efforts and helped to load the latest lorry with hospital beds and anaesthetic machines.

Over the last eight months, nearly £3 million (300 tonnes) worth of medical supplies in 13 lorry loads has been delivered across Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odessa, Lviv and Kherson since war began.

The former Prime Minister loading a hospital bed onto the lorry. | Photo: Zoe Norfolk

The crisis has seen hospitals in Ukraine pushed to breaking point, with supply chains and buildings decimated.

Doctors on the ground have been appealing for urgent assistance, and The Lincoln Hospital alongside Circle’s other 54 hospitals has come to their aid.

Boris Johnson said: “The Great British public are renowned for their generosity of spirit – even when times are tough at home – so I’m calling on them to dig deep this Christmas and help send hope to the heroic Ukrainian medics battling to save lives by supporting Circle Health’s vital humanitarian mission.

“Not one bandage or bed you fund will go to waste in the Herculean task of rebuilding beautiful, brave Ukraine. Slava Ukraini: the British people stand with you, this Christmas and always.”

Boris sitting in a forklift truck to help load the supplies onto the lorry with Circle CEO Paolo Pieri (left) and Jeremy Hill, Managing Director of Bunzl Healthcare (right). | Photo: Zoe Norfolk

A spokesperson for The Lincoln Hospital said: “Everyone at the hospital has been moved by the terrible events unfolding in Ukraine we and the community in Lincoln are proud to renew our commitment to medical colleagues in Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odessa, Lviv and Kherson.”

A team of Ukrainian doctors working for Circle Health Group in the UK liaise directly with medics. They inform Circle Health Group about hospitals’ stock shortages in real time.

Items are then gathered from each of Circle’s hospitals across every region of the UK and sorted and loaded at their Enfield warehouse. Dedicated employees volunteer to drive the loads across Europe right into war-torn areas of Ukraine.

The items delivered to date include hundreds of wheelchairs, crutches, scrubs, bandages, ambulances, operating tables, hospital beds, ventilators, anaesthetic machines and prosthetics.

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