Hundreds of hospital volunteers provide thousands of hours of service every year

They work in audiology, cancer services, catering, the children’s nursery, fundraising, clinical psychology, floral societies, library services, pharmacy, the readership panel, Radio Odstock, recycling, the spinal unit and Salisbury Hospice.

Aged from 16 upwards to those who are retired, they help to deliver meals to patients, guide visitors around the hospital, sing Christmas carols, help with stock deliveries, befriend patients and collect prescriptions, among a host of other services.

A large proportion provide a friendly face to patients and staff throughout the wards, offering conversation, refreshments and assistance at mealtimes.

Voluntary services manager Jo Jarvis said: “We advertise current roles on our website and we try to match applicant to role as much as we can.

“We ask for a commitment of a minimum of three hours once a week - it’s flexible though if people can only do it fortnightly.

“For the size of the hospital we have a good number of volunteers. We look for people who are able to give commitment, somebody with empathy and good listening skills.

"For people who prefer to be in the background rather than being face to face with a patient, we have roles which include things like pulling notes for multi-disciplinary team meetings where volunteers help locate, collect and prepare patient notes for the team.

“Our hospital guides cover the main entrance areas looking for people who are lost and want some help while our ward companions sit down with a patient in particular who has not had any visitors or who may have the early signs of dementia.

"Sometimes all a patient wants is someone to be there and hold their hand.”

Jo says the age range of volunteers is generally divided into three groups. “We have the younger generation: 16 to 25-year-olds who are usually looking for a career in healthcare and are eager to experience life in a hospital to find out whether they like the environment.

“Then we have the mature people looking for employment, or who have been at home bringing up their children and who want to get back into the workplace but are a bit scared. They often find they enjoy it so much that they become a member of staff.

“And then we have those who are retired - we have no upper age limit. We find people often volunteer because they want to give back to the hospital either for their own care, their family’s or a friend’s care.”

Jo who works four days a week has been involved with voluntary services at the hospital for 12 years having first got in touch with the team because she wanted to practice sign language.

“I had done level one in British sign language,” she said and wanted to go onto level two but needed some more practice.

“When I called volunteer services, the manager at the time told me about a post coming up that I could have.

“I love my job - it’s lovely working with so many people every day, both the staff and public, my job isn’t like work at all.”

Visit www.salisbury.nhs.uk/InformationForPatients/Departments/VoluntaryServices/Pages/default.aspx