The UK’s National Health Service is offering thousands of
Easyjet and Virgin Atlantic cabin crew members work at the new NHS Nightingale
Hospital being set up at the ExCeL Centre in East London.
According to the NHS, many cabin crew staff already have
first aid training and the necessary security clearance to work at the temporary
hospital, which is being set up to deal with an expected influx of Covid-19
patients as the UK prepares to hit its peak of the pandemic.
Volunteers would be changing beds and performing other non-clinical
tasks, as well as helping nurses and doctors working on the wards, the NHS
said.
Virgin Atlantic said furloughed staff who volunteer will
still be paid 80 per cent of their wages through the government’s job retention
scheme and be given free accommodation and meals.
The news comes after Easyjet announced it has grounded all
of its aircraft and will be putting cabin crew on furlough starting 1 April.
Both airlines have written to a combined 13,000 staff
inviting them to volunteer to help during the crisis.
The UK is setting up two more temporary Nightingale hospitals
at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham and the Manchester Central
Conference Centre. Both hospitals will open in mid-April and airline crew have
been invited to volunteer at those sites as well.