Nurses are joining a team running health pop-up stalls at Notting Hill Carnival in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster.
School nurses working in Kensington and Chelsea, west London, volunteered to help out over the August bank holiday festival.
They will join a 60-strong team, including a primary care nurse who works locally, along with 16 psychiatric nurses, pharmacists and other medical staff. Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust put a call out for staff to help with this year’s pop-up health stalls following the catastrophic blaze at Grenfell Tower in June.
It also teamed up with social support provider Hestia.
The trust has put the team together in just two weeks as part of its support following the fire, which claimed the lives of an estimated 80 people.
There will be two stalls, one at the 31-storey Trellick Tower in Kensal Town and the second near Grenfell Tower on Sunday (27 August) and Bank Holiday Monday (28 Aug).
Jim O’ Donnell, the deputy mental health services director for Kensington and Chelsea, and lead nurse for the borough’s response to the Grenfell disaster, said staff will expect to help out will all the health issues connected with festivals, including alcohol and heat stroke.
‘We have done things at carnival before, but probably not on this scale. I think it’s going to be interesting in relation to Grenfell. It’s hard to predict.’
He stressed staff were not intending to diagnose mental illness at the event.
‘These are people living there lives who had a disaster happen to them.’
There will be two shifts during both the Bank Holiday Sunday and Monday and the stalls will be staffed from 11am to 11pm, and they will be wearing T shirts so festival-goers can spot them.
‘They will be keeping an eye on people who might come to carnival,’ said Mr O’Donnell.
