Useful Information

Make a difference and volunteer in the hospital

Every 24 hours of every day in Southampton's NHS Trust Hospitals - The General and Princess Anne they:

• Perform more than 2,200 x-rays and scans
• See 950 people at outpatient appointments
• Admit 350 people as inpatients or day patients
• Use enough water to fill 12,200 baths
• Treat 230 casualties in A&E
• Spend around £900,000
• Help deliver 14 babies

There are around 7,500 employees in scores of different jobs keeping the NHS running and these are also supported by around 1,000 volunteers.
Although these huge numbers of people and very interesting facts give you some idea of the size and complexity of the organisation that is devoted to making you feel better and well again, your assistance as a volunteer could add a new dimension to the 'patient experience.'

Volunteers have the time to greet, support and deliver services to patients, quite often on a one to one basis, that will make a difference to the patient getting better more quickly.
The volunteer will receive, in return, an excellent and enjoyable experience helping to make a difference.

What can you do?

Volunteers come from all walks of life and range in ages from 16 to 93. Some choose to help in the League of Friends in the shops and in the tea bars. Others prefer to help on the wards, including assisting patients at meal times, in the outpatients department, or work alongside the PALS team, join hospital radio, or Radio Lollipop, or quite often support patients and staff as part of a team or work in the backroom offices for those who possibly don't like to be in the public eye. If you are looking for 'something different' there is bound to be a job for you.

Interested? ring: 023 8079 4688

Radio Lollipop

Radio Lollipop is a separate organisation from Southampton Hospital Radio. It is an international charity serving 9 hospitals in the UK, 5 in Australia, 3 in New Zealand and two in America at Miami and Houston Children's Hospitals.
The Southampton team at the General was formed 12 years ago and currently operates on three evenings a week - Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, between 6pm and 8pm.

The heart of Lollipop's work is the ward visits made by the volunteers.  On a typical evening they will talk to and play with the children, distribute puzzles, quizzes and set out competitions as well as collect requests for music.
Often described as 'serious fun' but just as important, the volunteers will have time to talk to the parents. This may be the first time all day that anxious parents have had the opportunity to talk to someone who is not part of the medical staff, about the normal things in life - sport, fashion, soaps, and the other normal facets of daily life. It really can make a difference.

All of the ward activities are underpinned by the radio shows created specially for the children from the Sound Studio on B level. The music is aimed from 2 to 18 year old children - so that's a really varied audience and some of the children are also invited to visit the studio to help with the programmes.
For details call: 023 8079 6062

League of Friends

The Trustee Committee and volunteers of the League of Friends of Southampton General hospital have one main aim, which is to improve the care and comfort of the patients, visitors and staff, above and beyond the funding provided by the NHS.

Volunteers are all unpaid, running costs are truly minimal and more than £800,000 has been gifted over the last five years to purchase a variety of items from carpets, ward curtains, walking frames, chairs and trolleys to sophisticated hi-tech equipment costing tens of thousands of pounds per item and used for ever more complex investigations, diagnosis and treatment of an increasing number of patients. (please see their website www.leagueoffriends-uhs.org.uk for details of the donations to the hospital).

All volunteers are requested to be prepared to give at least 3 hours per week (preferably more) working at one or more of the activities below:

• Assisting in the shop in the Entrance level of the Hospital.
• Volunteering in the coffee bar on F level and on level A near the oncology department.
• Operating a trolley service which visits all wards for patients and staff.
• Cashiering to manage the money collected during these activities.
• Volunteers are needed to manage the inventory for the T bars and the main shop.
• Secretarial and filing work in the office on Level B.

Travel and incidental expenses are available and volunteers are encouraged to share transport wherever possible. 
For further information telephone the league office on: 02381 205314 

Bequests are also most welcome and donations assist in keeping their work active. Volunteers are needed to encourage such gifts again please e-mail or telephone the League of Friends of Southampton General Hospital.