Staff at St Andrew’s have donated their winnings from an internal vaccine competition to Consultant psychiatrist Dr Alexei Titievskii’s Ukraine efforts.

Clinical Nurse Leader Michael Chinosengwa requested that two payments of £767 were made via Paypal to Alexei, who is busy setting up field hospitals in the country which is currently under invasion.

The competitions were launched last year among clinical staff at St Andrew’s in a bid to encourage as many staff as possible to get their COVID booster and flu jab.

Michael said: “The staff from Wantage Gate and Garden Cottage were thrilled to have won the St Andrew’s vaccine competition. But, instead of spending the money on a treat for themselves, everyone decided to donate the cash to Alexei’s cause.

“We’ve been reading his story and how he’s dedicated loads of his time to setting up these hospitals and now he’s also trying to mentally support those in Ukraine who are traumatised by what they’re witnessing. We all felt very strongly that we wanted to do our bit and support our colleague.”

Alexei, who was recently in Ireland overseeing medical supplies being despatched to Ukraine, said: “A huge thank you to all of you for the donations to Ukraine. The funds have been very gratefully received and have been sent on huge tents which will be used to support the next three field hospitals I’m trying to set up.” 

He is also launching a psychological support unit which can be accessed via the phone or online platforms such as Zoom or Teams, in a bid to help those who may be showing signs of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Since the war was announced, Alexei has been granted time off from work, to orchestrate the creation of four field hospitals across the invaded country. Last week, the first hospital opened and he is continuing to work on opening the remaining three.

For anyone who thinks they might be able to help with Alexei’s efforts regarding the psychological support unit, he is asking the email the St Andrew’s Communications team on communciations@standrew.co.uk