News

Kettering General Hospital is thanking its dedicated volunteers for their support during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many of the Trust’s regular army of about 250 volunteers’ were unable to continue working during this period because their age, or underlying medical conditions – a great frustration for them.

However some of our volunteers – including many new volunteers – have been able to continue to work during this difficult period in different ways as we adapted to meet the Covid-19 challenge.

KGH’s Volunteering Manager, Christine Hardy, said: “Coronavirus turned volunteering on its head at KGH.

“Many of our services – and the volunteers who provided them – just could not continue for safety reasons.

“Our Buggy Service - where drivers take less able patients to their appointments in an electric buggy from our car park – was the first service to close on March 20 because of social distancing.

“It was quickly followed on March 24 by most of our other face-to-face volunteer services in our wards and departments, and our Meet and Greet service in our reception, as we made our preparations to receive coronavirus patients.

“It almost felt like volunteering would have to come to a complete halt.

“But, as we learned more about coronavirus, and the precautions associated with it, we were able to create some new ways for volunteers to support us.”

Ways our volunteers adapted to meet the Covid-19 challenge

We worked hard to think of ways our volunteers could continue to help us during Covid-19 and those who were able to stepped up in a number of different ways.

These have included:

• Staff meals service - Supporting the hospital’s We Care team in delivering some 45,000 donated meals to location where staff could pick them up supplied by Food4Heroes and Salute the NHS (April-July)
• Care Courier service -   This is a patient belongings delivery service, ensuring patients could have their own clothes and other personal items
• Supporting our We Care Café – a socially distanced area where staff can unwind and have a free drink. Our volunteers have been very important in supporting – and continuing to support – this venture.
• Pharmacy drivers and runners –delivering medications to shielding patients at home, and delivering medications directly to our wards
• Online volunteering – volunteers have been supported inductions for new employees by giving presentations online about the work of volunteers and talking about the experiences of supporting our staff as volunteer – when volunteers usually directly support patients.

For the many volunteers who have not been able to return yet the hospital has created a weekly email newsletter keeping them up to date on the situation.

Christine said: “We really miss our volunteers and are looking forward to them being able to return, and we are looking at how we can safely do this.

“We are looking at ways for our volunteers to support our outpatients’ centres away from the main hospital site and how we can support our staff on site.

“We are hoping we will be able to create new roles and opportunities as well as, at the right time, reinstituting the services we have had to suspend.”

Kettering General Hospital’s Deputy Director of Human Resources, Paula Kirkpatrick, said: “I want to say a big thank you to all our volunteers.

“Those who have been able to support us during Covid-19 have played a very valuable role at a very difficult time for the hospital.

“We know we have had the moral support of many of our other volunteers – who for very good reasons – haven’t been able to be active at the height of the pandemic.

“We would urge them to keep in touch so that we can find ways they can support us in the future.”