Government Sends 30 NHS Staff to Help Ebola Fight

The first co-ordinated group of NHS staff are due to fly from London to Sierra Leone to help the fight against the Ebola virus.

Around 30 GPs, nurses, psychiatrists and emergency medicine consultants are being sent to the West African country's capital, Freetown.

There they will complete a week's training before starting work in Ebola treatment centres across the country.The Ebola virus has now killed more than 5,000 people.

Every one of these NHS heroes will play a vital role in the fight against Ebola”

Justine Greening International Development Secretary

This is the first wave of NHS volunteers to be deployed by the UK government.The healthcare professionals will be diagnosing and treating those who have contracted the virus.

Make a difference'

Donna Wood, senior sister at Haywood Hospital in Staffordshire, who is one of the volunteers leaving the UK, said: "I'd been following the stories on the news so when I saw an email from the NHS highlighting the Ebola situation in Sierra Leone, and calling for volunteers, I felt I had to act.

"I knew I could use the skills I've got to make a difference and join a team to help bring the disease under control."Ms Wood said she had received gold standard training.

She added: "We're very lucky in this country to have the NHS, the staff and the skills - it's just not the case everywhere else."My parents and the whole family are proud of my decision to go."

The NHS volunteers have been preparing for deployment with intensive training at a Ministry of Defence facility in York.More teams of volunteers are set to leave in the coming weeks after hundreds came forward to offer their services.

'Commitment'Chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies said: "I have been really impressed with the numbers of NHS workers who have stepped forward to help the communities that have been devastated by Ebola."The fact that more than 1,000 have come forward so far is a real testament to their commitment to public service."

Prof Tony Redmond, head of the charity UK-Med, which has organised the health workers' deployment, said he was proud of all the "selfless volunteers".There are now 1,000 British military personnel, scientists, healthcare and aid workers operating in West Africa, in a bid to contain the disease, International Development Secretary Justine Greening said.

She added: "To beat Ebola we desperately need the experience and dedication of skilled doctors and nurses to care for the thousands of sick and dying patients who are not receiving the treatment they need."Every one of these NHS heroes will play a vital role in the fight against Ebola.

"It is only because of their combined efforts that we stand a chance of defeating this disease."

For further information please visit

http://eis24.net/