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Staff and patients at Royal Stoke and County Hospital have been given a huge boost during the coronavirus pandemic after the Denise Coates Foundation awarded a massive £10 million grant.

University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) has confirmed the grant will be given to UHNM Charity to support its staff and patients during the current Covid-19 crisis.

The substantial grant will enable the charity to drawdown funds to deliver a number of significant schemes which will enhance and improve patient care and support staff at both Royal Stoke Hospital and County Hospital, Stafford, through the unprecedented demand for their services during this pandemic.

In 2012 Denise Coates - the driving force behind bet365’s success - set up a charity (now called the Denise Coates Foundation) focusing on education, community and medical research, and was awarded a CBE.

'We are extremely grateful...'

UHNM chief executive Tracy Bullock said: “We are extremely grateful to the Denise Coates Foundation for this significant grant to support our staff and patients during Covid-19 and beyond.

"As a result of Covid we have rapidly established new ways of working but in some circumstances are lacking the technology to do this in the most effective way.

"This investment will help fund schemes and provide latest technology to improve communications between clinicians; between clinicians and patients and between patients and their families.

“Covid-19 is also affecting our local communities and this significant investment will also be used for initiatives with our partners in the community, mental health and social care to support them to support us.”

She added: “Thanks to the Denise Coates Foundation, we will be able to prioritise the well-being of our staff at a time when they are working harder than ever before in extremely challenging circumstances and enhance and improve the care and experience of our patients and their families.

“We are also delighted that plans to redevelop our Cancer Centre can be brought forward and will have a legacy far beyond Covid-19 to protect our vulnerable cancer patients and for this we offer our deepest and sincerest thanks.”

'They stand on the front line...'

Denise Coates CBE, Denise Coates Foundation Trustee, said: “The trustees of the Foundation are committed to supporting the efforts of the University Hospitals of North Midlands, as it, its staff and its wider community of carers and volunteers face what must be the most demanding circumstances in the hospitals and, indeed, the NHS’s history.

"It and they stand on the front line in the battle against Covid-19.

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“We have all seen and heard the events unfold in the media as day after day the number of those infected increases and the number of those who tragically lose their lives also rises.

"There are many stories of people suffering without the comfort of close friends and family as restrictions on people’s movement prevent loved ones visiting.

“This is why I and the other Trustees felt we had to step forward and approach the UHNM to see what we could do to help.

"We are sure that the funding the Foundation provides will make a huge difference to the Hospital, the staff and more broadly the people of North Staffordshire and the surrounding area.”