Hospital helpers Pat and David urge more to join team of volunteers
A married couple who have volunteered at the Royal Derby Hospital for the last 10 years have called on more people to donate their time to help patients.
Pat and David Rogers decided to join the hospital’s fantastic team of volunteers after being impressed with the level of care shown when they both required treatment in 2006.
Having just moved to Derby from Hampshire, both soon found themselves requiring surgery, with Pat, 77, having an operation on her shoulder and David, 78, undergoing a prostate procedure.
Both immediately decided to sign up to volunteer to say thank you and also make new friends in the area, with the pair now becoming familiar faces to all patients visiting the hospital’s Rheumatology department and Diabetic Foot Clinic.
Pat said: “After all that the hospital has done for us, we just wanted to give something back. We didn’t really know anyone when we moved, so thought it’d be a great way to meet people. The staff were so very good to us, so we thought that we’d love to work here and try and do our bit to make others feel comfortable in hospital. We both love coming in and really feel like we’ve landed on our feet by being part of this team of volunteers. Although we don’t do anything clinical, the staff have been so accepting and have really made us feel part of the team, whilst we’ve grown to know so many of the patients very well. Often, people walk through the door and say ‘there’s Pat and David, we must have come to the right place’, which is very rewarding and hopefully is reassuring for patients too.”
Pat and David volunteer in Medical Specialties every Friday morning and help out by putting patients at ease and taking patient notes and prescriptions to different departments.
The couple are set to receive a Trust Long Service Award to thank them for their efforts in March and David expressed his pride at reaching the milestone.
He said: “We’re very lucky to be able to be part of the team here at the Royal Derby Hospital. Some patients have told us that they actually look forward to coming in to hospital to have a chat with us, which is really humbling. When you get to our age, social isolation can be a big problem but volunteering really keeps you energised and in touch with everything that’s going on in the community. It is difficult to believe that we’ve been here for 10 years but we’re very proud to have been associated with this trust for so long. There is a real feeling of comradery amongst the volunteers and I would urge anyone thinking of volunteering a few hours a week to give it a try.”
There are around 600 Trust volunteers currently working across each of University Hospitals of Derby and Burton’s five hospital sites, with around 400 at the Royal Derby Hospital and London Road Community Hospital.
If you’d like to join our team of volunteers at the Royal Derby Hospital and London Road Community Hospital, contact the Voluntary Services team on 01332 786148.