Praise for volunteers

Hospital bosses have praised the work done by an army of volunteers.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust held a recent event to celebrate the hundreds of people who volunteer at its city hospitals.

With a long history of volunteering and around 450 volunteers currently supporting its hospitals, the trust wanted to recognise and celebrate their achievements.

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Chair of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Dr Linda Pollard, said: “Our volunteers regularly give up their time to help us in the running of our services, support our patients and fundraise for our various appeals, and we wanted to celebrate these selfless people, young and old, who freely give their time and energy and who make such a difference to our patients and to hospital life in general.”

At the event held at Horizon Leeds volunteers were able to share stories about their experiences at Leeds’s hospitals.

Sheila Miller, who is one of the trust’s longest serving volunteers and a volunteer chaplain at Leeds General Infirmary and St. James’s Hospital, shared her story about her time as a volunteer.

Mrs Miller supports wards, and volunteers in A&E helping patients and relatives. As an ex-patient herself, she was able to reinforce, from both patient and volunteer perspectives, the positive impact that volunteers have on patients to improve their experience in hospital.

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The trust’s chief executive Julian Hartley said: “We strive to provide the best quality of care and put the patient at the centre of everything we do, and our volunteers support us in making the patient experience a positive one - volunteering is an important role within the trust and we are constantly recruiting more and more as they have become part of hospital life. Their support for our patients is inspiring, and we are grateful for all of their incredible work.”