Coronavirus: Wolverhampton Sikh temple donates £50k to help patients

The donation was raised by trustees and worshippers

A Sikh temple has donated £50,000 to fund technology so Covid-19 patients can stay in touch with their families.

The money from the Guru Teg Bahadur Gurdwara will help buy 100 computer tablets for the NHS trust running Birmingham's new Nightingale Hospital.

Paul Uppal, a trustee at the temple in Wolverhampton, said he hoped loved ones would gain "some comfort" by being able to speak or see each others' faces.

Many relatives have been unable to visit patients because of restrictions.

Last week Health Secretary Matt Hancock said "wherever possible" close family members could visit relatives who were dying under new coronavirus guidelines.

Mr Uppal, a former Wolverhampton MP, said he knew of people who had been unable to say goodbye to relatives with Covid-19 and he felt this was extremely sad.

"To not be there in their last moments - it struck me this would feel like the most painful thing," he said.

Paul Uppal said members wanted to support local services and hospital staff

The technology could also help "bring hope" to seriously-ill patients being treated for the virus, he said.

"The chance to see the faces of their children may just pull them through," he added.

With the gurdwara on Upper Villiers Street closed because of the lockdown, trustees who held video and phone calls decided this was "an area where we could make a difference".

The donation will go to the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the new Nightingale hospital and to the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust which will use some of the money for staff welfare projects.