Chesterfield hospital volunteers praised for hard work after quality assessment

Members of the volunteering team at Chesterfield Royal Hospital.

The hospital trust has achieved the Investing in Volunteers Quality Standard following an application, supported by Chesterfield Royal Hospital charity. The standard aims to improve the quality of the volunteering experience for all volunteers and allows the hospital to acknowledge the enormous and valuable contribution they make to the care of patients and support of staff.

The process started in March 2019 and involved a number of workshops, a self-assessment report and submissions of evidence of best practice. A two-day site assessment was then carried out involving the chairman, chief executive and a group of no less than 25 volunteers who were interviewed about their understanding, experience and the value of volunteering at the trust.

Richard Ball is the hospital’s volunteering services manager.

He said: “We currently have 190 volunteers across a range of services within the hospital, all of them giving their precious time of their own free will. The work they do in supporting our staff and enhancing the patient experience is immeasurable and achieving this standard is a testament to the effort they all put in.

“We are constantly looking at how our volunteers affect the way our patients and staff experience this hospital’s services and have recently introduced the service into different areas.

“We now have trained volunteers who provide companionship to end of life patients, we have chaplaincy volunteers, maternity support and volunteers who chat with our patients having Chemotherapy and make them cups of tea.

“In 2019 alone our volunteers provided a total of 20,291 hours of help to patients, which includes more than 5,000 hours on our wards, more than 1,500 hours from our chaplaincy and ‘End of Life’ companions and 1,126 hours supporting patients and staff in our emergency department. They’ve also been involved in putting together carers’ packs, end of life packs, wrapping Christmas presents and wayfinding for visitors and patients. “I’m delighted that the trust and this service has been recognised.”