Responding to COVID-19:
Members Giving Back
Coventry University
About 50 Paramedic Science students from the University who have previously worked with West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) on placements have joined up once again with ambulance staff at the service’s request to help bolster their numbers. The paramedic students are all about six months away from becoming fully qualified paramedics, and they will be working as paid support staff for WMAS which will also count as their placement. In addition, more than 25 PhD students have volunteered to help University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire with COVID-19 testing. About 400 pairs of safety goggles and 90,000 pairs of gloves have been donated to Warwickshire County Council’s public health team for use in care homes and the University’s health simulation facilities have been made available for local health trusts to use for training purposes for their staff.
BP (1)
The BP Foundation will donate USD$2 million to the WHO’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, which supports medical professionals and patients worldwide by providing critical aid and supplies. The company and it’s retail networks are providing free fuel to emergency services in various countries including the UK, Spain, Germany, Poland and Turkey. Air BP is providing free jet fuel for use by the helicopters of a number of UK air ambulance services. BP is also donating its significant supercomputing capability to help halt the spread of COVID-19. Working with the US government, leading universities and major tech firms like Amazon, Google and Microsoft, their Center for High-Performance Computing (CHPC) in Houston will be used by scientists developing answers to complex scientific questions about COVID-19 in hours or days versus weeks or months.
BSI Global
The company is working closely with Governments, regulators and organizations globally to share best practice and expertise, providing insight and information to help navigate the risks, mitigate crisis and enable resilience. In the UK they have made a suite of risk and business continuity standards publicly available which cover themes such as security and resilience, supply chain continuity and crisis management, providing best practice guidance on how to approach, manage and overcome some of the difficulties that many are facing. This has also been supported by several webinars. BSI have also made a series of standards for medical devices (especially ventilators) and personal protective equipment (PPE) available in the UK and will continue to expand this as necessary to other areas such as hygiene standards. On a global scale they have provided complimentary access to their Supply Chain Risk Exposure Evaluation Network (SCREEN) tool which provides supply chain insights and intelligence.
Control Risks
The company is providing COVID-19-related support to dozens of organisations around the world to help them understand, anticipate and respond to events emerging around them. These include 17 global NGOs working globally in areas such as education, children’s health, human rights and healthcare, who are receiving services on a complimentary basis.
Members Giving Back
Addleshaw Goddard
The company has been appointed to the key law firm panel set up by UK Finance to provide advice to their members on a range of urgent issues arising from COVID-19. Membership of UK Finance includes all the major banks and over 200 other financial institutions. A team across Addleshaw Goddard’s Banking and Financial Regulation has been working with a number of clients on the drafting of template documentation for the COVID-19 Business Interruption Loans. These loans form part of the UK Government package to provide support to UK businesses in response to the pandemic. The scheme went live on 23 March and provides loans for smaller businesses facilitated by the British Business Bank. The company has also created the AG Force Majeure toolkit, providing a useful summary of the key stages in assessing a client's position, their options and strategy.
We give a warm thank you on behalf of all our members to these member companies who have been supporting COVID-19 efforts around the world.
Aetna International
All fully insured Aetna International members have free access to their virtual health service, vHealth, for a limited time. Any member who undergoes diagnostic testing for COVID-19, as referred by a medical physician in an approved medical facility, will be reimbursed in full for the cost of the test and consultation. The company is also waiving cost-sharing, co-pay and other deductibles for inpatient hospital admissions related to COVID-19 within their medical network, and policyholders in Singapore whose finances have been affected by COVID-19 may apply for temporary support with their premium payments due for their current policy term.
Aviva
Aviva has pledged $100,000 to the Sayang Sayang Fund initiated by the Community Foundation of Singapore (CFS). The Fund was established to extend help to both healthcare professionals and sensitive communities that may be impacted by COVID-19.