Moorfields Eye Hospital to expand volunteer programme

Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Friends of Moorfields have secured a £75,000 grant that will enable the expansion of a volunteer programme supporting patients undergoing surgery and injections.

The project was selected as one of 10 NHS hospital trusts that will receive NHS England funding through Helpforce’s Volunteering Innovators Programme.

The initiative aims to identify promising volunteer schemes that have the potential to spread to other NHS settings.

A further two NHS hospital trusts received funding through the Royal Voluntary service.

A total of 115 applications from 90 hospital trusts were received for the funding pool.

Friends of Moorfields, which is responsible for running Moorfields’ volunteer programme, currently has 213 volunteers who contribute 843 hours of volunteer time each week.

Chief executive officer of Friends of Moorfields, Angela Smith, said that the volunteer programme plays a “vital role” in ensuring that patients and their family have the best possible support during their visits.

“This grant will help us to build on the existing 200 person plus volunteer network and it means we can provide an even more tailored and specialised support service,” she emphasised.

Image credit: Moorfields Eye Hospital