Volunteers sought at south west hospitals

More volunteers are wanted for a role assisting ambulance staff in some of the South West's busiest hospitals.

South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) is looking or 10 or more people to become HALO Helping Hands (HHH).

The role involves supporting Hospital Ambulance Liaison Officers (HALOs) to help the smooth arrival and transition of patients into emergency departments.

The trust is also looking for more volunteer community first responders (CFTs)

Jude Patrick-Saunders from Newton Abbot was the first person to take on the HHH role and said "the staff really appreciate you".

She has been volunteering for one or two days a week at Derriford Hospital since February and said it was "an incredible thing to do".

She said: "You are a member of a really huge team, and without every single person that wheel just wouldn’t turn.

"Just having another person that’s able to just go and offer them a cup of tea, and show them where to go when the doctors are ready for families is really important for them."

The role involves talking with families, helping them navigate the hospital corridors and rules, making sure they are fed and watered and guiding them as to what happens next.

SWASFT said it relied on a team of about 600 volunteers including all CFRs which are locally based and often the first people on the scene of an emergency call out.

The trust’s oldest CFR is 86-year-old Michael Dearden.

He became a volunteer at the age of 70 after he was helped by fire service co-responders when he suffered a heart attack while playing cricket.

He said: "Where I live, I am invariably the first person on the scene.

"From that we do a full set of observations, and we report those back to the desk and from there they can assess... in the extreme cases I can call in any resource I need."

Mr Dearden said: "Age is not a restriction, as long as you are reasonably fit you can do a full course of CPR - you don’t need a medical background."

Jane Whichello, head of volunteering and community services at the Trust, said they were looking for someone with "good social skills".

She said that their 600 or so CFRs went to 20,600 jobs as first responders between April 2023 to March 2024.

"They do it because they get something out of it, and they want to give something back and they like the training," she said.

Ms Whichello said ideal candidate would be someone who was "enthusiastic, who is willing to muck in, who likes being with other people, and who is going to roll their sleeves up and help us move crews around, move patients around, and ensure that transitions into the hospital work well".

Follow BBC Cornwall on X, Facebook and Instagram. Follow BBC Devon on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].