Charity presents hospital Trust with £217k ‘gift’

John Jesky, Chairman of The Pennine Acute Trust, accepting the check from WRVS

WRVS, the age positive charity, has presented The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust with a gift of £217,000, to put towards purchasing new equipment across all its hospitals to benefit patients.

The money is an accumulation of the profits taken from the WRVS services at the Rochdale Infirmary, Fairfield General Hospital, The Royal Oldham and North Manchester General Hospitals and over the last few years.

The services at the hospitals give patients and visitors much more than a place to buy refreshments and gifts; volunteers provide a friendly face and sympathetic ear for those who are visiting loved ones.

Sue Collins, WRVS Head of Services for the North West, said: “We are delighted to be able to ‘gift’ this money to the Trust. The money was raised through the hard work and efforts of our dedicated volunteers who help WRVS in its work to support older people and make Britain a great place to grow old.”

John Jesky, Chairman of The Pennine Acute Trust, said: “On behalf of the Trust I would like to sincerely thank all of the volunteers from WRVS for their hard work and for this fantastic amount of money they have managed to raise across all our hospitals over the past few years. This amount is truly remarkable and we are extremely grateful.

“We now have to decide what we are going to spend this on. Clearly it should be spent on equipment the WRVS volunteers think our hospitals really need to benefit patients and visitors. It is such a sum of money that we can do huge things with it.

“Volunteers are an essential part of the hospital team and their goodwill and dedication allow us to complement the service that staff provide. Each and every one performs a vital role to a high standard. They are all appreciated by our staff and our patients. We believe they do an amazing amount of hard work and we couldn’t provide the level of service we do without the help of volunteers - they make a huge difference.”

WRVS currently provides a number of services at hospitals within the Trust. At Fairfield General Hospital volunteers help run a shop, a café, a tea bar and also a ‘meet & greet’ service at the hospital reception entrance. Other services include a café and a tea bar at North Manchester and further retail and refreshment services at The Royal Oldham, Rochdale Infirmary and Birch Hill.