SUPPORT OUR JOURNALISM: Please consider donating to keep our website running and free for all - thank you!

British RoyalsCoronavirusKing Charles III

Prince of Wales meets healthcare workers supported by The Prince’s Trust

During a visit to the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital on Thursday, The Prince of Wales met with young people supported by his Prince’s Trusts’ Health and Social Care programmes, and how those programmes led them to employment with the National Health Service.

The Prince also took the opportunity to personally thank frontline carers for their work throughout the pandemic. He met with leaders of the NHS Trusts for Chelsea & Westminster and Lewisham & Greenwich, and then received a tour of the CW+ MediCinema, which is an on-site theatre that will allow patients and their families to have a ‘movie-going experience.’

The Prince’s Trust has supported 820 young people with jobs over the past year, through the health and social care programmes. Clarence House notes that “many young people had been long unemployed or lost their jobs during Covid-19. The programme helps build confidence and teaches new skills – it also offers the chance to apply for jobs on completion.”

The programmes were created in 2019 through a partnership between the Trust and the Department of Health and Social Care and Health Education England, which is “supporting the recruitment and retention of the next generation of key workers; opening doors for young people and ensuring the future workforce of the NHS and wider sector.”

During his visit, Prince Charles also spoke with members of the London Ambulance Service, who shared stories of personal experience about abuse by members of the public. The Prince said, “You can’t believe it, can you?

“When I think of what it has been like for so long, and how many people have been lucky enough to have wonderful paramedics and ambulance staff coming to their rescue… But now you find the situation rising – violence, attacks, verbal attacks, racial abuse and everything else.

“To me it’s unreal, unacceptable. Why attack the people who are trying to look after you?”

Before departing, Prince Charles planted a commemorative tree in the hospital’s garden.

About author

Jess Ilse is the Assistant Editor at Royal Central. She specialises in the British, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish Royal Families and has been following royalty since Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee. Jess has provided commentary for media outlets in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Jess works in communications and her debut novel THE MAJESTIC SISTERS will publish in Fall 2024.