An open letter to the people of Sussex from public service workers

Sussex’s NHS, care providers, councils, police, fire and ambulance services are making an impassioned plea to the public to continue to stay at home to stop the spread of Covid-19.

In an open letter to the public, public services across Sussex urge local communities to stick with Government advice.

With the warm weather expected to remain into the weekend, and as the fifth week of lockdown draws to a close, Sussex Local Resilience Forum organisations are turning to the public to play their part in combatting the pandemic.

The letter, from Sussex LRF Chair, Assistant Chief Constable Dave Miller begins: ‘To our local communities. As another warm weekend approaches, we need your help…Please, stay home, protect the NHS, and save lives.’

It goes on to outline the efforts of key workers right across Sussex including ‘doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals…working around the clock to save lives’ and whose ‘families worry about them too’.

The letter has been endorsed by leaders from key public services around the county including the Council Leaders of the three local authorities, the Chief Constable and Police and Crime Commissioner, Chief Fire Officers, the Chief Executive of the South East Coast Ambulance Service and the NHS Covid-19 leader for Sussex.

These public agencies and others across Sussex are working together and with the military, private and voluntary sectors, as part of the Sussex LRF to combine and co-ordinate efforts to help protect the public.

The letter will be supported with a video, available later today, featuring personal pleas doctors, nurses, social workers, paramedics, firefighters other frontline workers tasked with the job of keeping Sussex safe during the pandemic, asking people to work with them as #SussexTogether.

The letter reads:

To our local communities,

As another warm weekend approaches, we need your help.

Please, stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.

Across Sussex, all of our organisations are working hard to keep you safe and well and make sure you get the essential services you need.

We are your NHS, your care providers, your councils, your police, fire and ambulance services, working together with the military, private and voluntary services to protect you and prevent deaths in our county from Covid-19.

Our staff are working hard to prevent the spread of the virus. Our nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals are working around the clock to save lives.

Our key workers are putting themselves forward every day to ensure people can be cared for, children educated and looked after, and communities given access to the things they need.

We thank you for all that you are doing to support us.

The most important thing you can do is to continue following the social distancing rules.

Thank you for helping to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in Sussex.

Together, we will get through this.

Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives.

#SussexTogether

Thank you.

ACC Dave Miller

Sussex Resilience Forum Chair

Endorsed by:

Council Leader Cllr Nancy Platts, Brighton and Hove City Council

Council Leader Keith Glazier, East Sussex County Council

Paul Marshall, Leader of West Sussex County Council including West Sussex Fire and Rescue and Service

Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne OBE

Giles York QPM, Chief Constable, Sussex Police

Philip Astle, Chief Executive, SECAmb

Dawn Whittaker, Chief Fire Officer, East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service

Adam Doyle, Chief Executive of the Sussex NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups and Sussex NHS Covid-19 Lead

Anyone can spread Coronavirus. The only reasons to leave home are:

• To shop for basic necessities or pick up medicine
• To travel to work when you absolutely cannot work from home
• To exercise once a day, alone or with members of your household
• Do not meet others, even friends or family