NHS trusts used Amazon Wish Lists as a ready-made donation shop for ward basics

In April 2020, with hospital visiting stopped by the pandemic, BBC News found more than 10 hospital trusts in England and Wales appealing for donations through Amazon Wish Lists. The lists asked for everyday items: hand cream, toothbrushes, razors, deodorant, thermometers, sanitary products, vitamins, coffee, stationery, toys and exercise books. Anyone with a shared link could buy from them, and purchased items were delivered to the account owner.

A wish list lets its owner set the number of units wanted and write a comment on each item, and the trusts used both. Some lists separated items for patients from items for staff, named the wards that would receive them and explained the purpose: toys and exercise books were to keep children occupied on the wards, and infrared thermometers were to look for signs of Covid-19 among parents and children at home. Charities and other third parties also set up lists on the health system's behalf.

The public responded. A list set up by a charity for East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust staff paused requests because of the high response, and NHS Swansea Bay said its appeal for toiletries, underwear and nightwear drew such a positive response that it paused it too. The trust said it normally keeps a small stock of such items for emergency admissions, but nothing like the scale needed while visitors could not bring clothing.

Use a consumer gift registry as a procurement channel: the public buys exactly the listed items and the retailer ships them to the hospital.

With visitors barred, Swansea Bay said it saw a patient-dignity problem: patients without clean clothing and a growing lack of toiletries.

A wish list lets the owner specify unit counts and per-item comments, so each request could name a ward, an audience and a purpose.

Anyone with the shared link could buy, and Amazon delivered purchases straight to the trust's account.

Charities and other third parties could set up lists for a trust, spreading the load of running appeals.

In a crisis, borrow a consumer tool whose built-in features (quantities, notes, shareable link, delivery) already match the need, rather than building a donation system from scratch.

Not everyone welcomed it. Several NHS staff, including a worker for an ambulance service and a paramedic, said on social media (one tweet was shared more than 600 times) that they did not need free pizza or coffee and that people should give to those who had lost income. BBC News asked NHS England and NHS Wales for comment, and NHS Swansea Bay responded on their behalf.