Philanthropist pledges £500k to hospital

Thursday 26 March 2020

A local philanthropist has pledged £500,000 for Jersey's hospital, aiming to kickstart an island-wide fundraiser for the health service, as it battles a public health emergency.

Hoping to help the Hospital secure enough medical equipment to respond to the growing covid-19 outbreak, Scott Thomas is urging islanders that, “we need to help them so that they can help us.”

With his own pledge, Mr Thomas is hoping to set an example for other donors who may be able to give time, money or other services to make frontline health workers’ lives easier in the weeks to come. 

Speaking to Express about why he wanted to set up the fundraiser, Mr Thomas said: “We’re in such a crisis right now, one we’ve never seen before. We should be doing our best as islanders...to help this situation that we’re in.” 

Specifically, Mr Thomas hopes that the money will be used to bolster the Hospital’s ability to protect its staff and to further equip it for treating severe cases of covid-19. 

Pictured: Mr Thomas hopes the money raised will help the health service combat the virus crisis.

The businessman added: “It’s essential that we back the medical profession in both the Hospital and the independent companies out there who are our family doctors.”

In order to put in place the infrastructure for large, private donations to filter through to the Hospital, Mr Thomas is in the process of creating an account and setting up all the required checks and balances.

Whilst he, and a team of people, work on getting this up and running, he’s inviting all islanders – no matter what they’re able to give – to donate something to the local health service. 

“I would like to see everyone donate something, whether it be money or whether it be their time or whether it be some resources, but we all need to act as one unit. The old saying in life has always been ‘divide and conquer’, this is the time where we must not let divisions get in the way of saving the island and saving our lives. We cannot afford to have division amongst any of us on the island, we have to be united, united, united.” 

Pictured: The businessman wants to see everyone donate what they can to ease the strain on the medical profession.

Mr Thomas hopes that any money raised through this campaign will supplement any extra Government funding the health service is receiving.

“No Government in the world has got enough resources to get this job done and the private sector and individuals have to step in...anyone’s donation could end up helping a member of their family.”

As well as unity in terms of rallying around the health service, Mr Thomas is also calling for stricter compliance with the current Government social distancing advice – which tells all islanders to cut out all unnecessary contact and, if you do go out, to keep at least two metres away from anyone not in your household. 

For this, Mr Thomas has developed his own “slogan” which he urges all islanders to take heed of: “Stay safe, stay strong, stay home.”