Several volunteers were nominated for an OSCA for the help they gave to the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme hub located at the Hospital.
Ours is one of only five hubs in the country and was actually was the pilot for the Programme! The hub sends out over 1,000,000 test kits annually to people in the Midlands and North West. Of these approximately 650,000 are returned for examination. In addition the hub receives over 11,000 calls each month through the helpline. Not only do staff re-assure worried callers they make appointments for them at hospitals or clinics near them for any follow ups. The staff regularly receives praise for their compassion and knowledge of the vast area they are responsible for.
In February 2016 the service had a crisis when one of the machines which packs the test kits for the post broke down. A call was made to Friends volunteers and twelve immediately rallied round and manually prepared over 20,000 kits to keep the service running until the machine was repaired. The volunteers all received a personal letter of thanks from Juliet Starkey who is the Group Manager at the hospital. It then came as a surprise that they had also been nominated for one of the UHCW Trust’s Outstanding Service and Care Awards or OSCAs as they are known. Several of them, pictured above, were available to meet and be presented with certificates by Juliet and were then shown round the hub by Rachel Baker, Quality Lead for the Hub.
Willy Goldschmidt, Chairman of the Friends, said “It was marvellous to hear of these nominations which added to the recognition that the Trust has given to the work of the Charity at the OSCA award ceremony in September. Volunteers are the mainstays of the Charity, providing a variety of valued services throughout the hospital. We welcome applications to become a volunteer from all elements of the community. Information about voluntary roles can be found on our website www.fsx.org.uk.”
Photo by Bob Mercer:- Volunteers being shown round the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme’s machine room by hospital managers.