Across Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group we’re exceptionally lucky to have 379 caring and compassionate volunteers that have contributed a staggering 53,541 hours of time in the last financial year alone, and more than 1,000 years’ worth of time overall to supporting our patients. We have a fabulous volunteer team that support our volunteers. They facilitate with the recruitment, training and management of our wonderful volunteers.
Our volunteers do not replace the work of clinical staff and may only support a few hours each month, but their impact on our services, and by extension, the overall patient experience is immeasurable.
You may have seen them in our hospitals or community sites ready to greet you as you walk in and help get you to the right place if you’ve lost your way, keep patients company when their loved ones can’t be by their side, or sharing their personal experiences to support others going through community groups.
This Volunteers’ Week we hosted our first Group Volunteer Long Services Awards to celebrate those that have reached five years of service, or 1,000 hours of time spent volunteering for the benefit of our patients. Bringing our volunteers from acute or community settings in the same room so they can celebrate and share their experience together and collect a certificate of recognition.
I am immensely grateful for every kind smile shared, cup of tea served, or detailed direction given to patients and visitors to our wards, community groups and hospitals. It takes an incredibly special person to donate their time for the sole purpose of doing a little good in the world. I hope that by hosting long service awards our volunteers will find it a fulfilling and rewarding experience too!
We’ve had more than 100 new volunteers join in us in the last year across a variety of roles, and we thank them immensely for doing so.
If you have a few hours to spare each month and would like to help our patients in moments when a friendly face can mean the world, please take a look at our volunteering pages on the United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, or Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust websites where you will find a wide range of volunteering opportunities.