From Our Chairman

21st November, 2022

In his latest post, Tim Hutchings, Chairman of our Board of Trustees, reflects on the uniqueness of the services we provide.

The word ‘unique’ is one that is regularly misused, but I would argue that in relation to the Friends of Moorfields we can use it with complete justification. Recently our Chief Executive, Angela Smith, was invited to address The World Association of Eye Hospitals in Baltimore to make a presentation on the use of volunteers to ‘hold hands’ and reassure patients undergoing eye surgery. As you might expect, feedback from Moorfields patients about their treatment is consistently good but, with the added benefit of the support of our volunteers, the percentage who report that it was excellent has increased markedly. Why unique? Well as far as we can tell no other eye hospital in the world provides such a service, although several are now interested in doing so.

The Friends of Moorfields have a claim to uniqueness, not only on the basis of our handholding service but also on the range of support we provide and our genuine wish to expand into areas where we can appropriately apply the knowledge and expertise we have gained over many years. Volunteer to Career, our latest offering, not only supports those volunteers seeking employment to do so, it also has the added benefit of supporting the hospital in the recruitment of staff.

We have 30 volunteers providing telephone support and calling an average of 150 patients every day to remind them about their appointment, assist with directions and other queries, and explain about the safety measures Moorfields has in place for their visit. As a result of this service the number of missed appointments has been considerably reduced. A win-win for both patients and the hospital.

Our Health Information Hub is another example of a voluntary organisation providing a high-quality service with professionally qualified staff dispensing a massive range of information for the benefit of patients and their families.

I could go on listing our services but, sadly, space does allow me to do so – but one way or another our volunteers support over 750 patients a day, whether it be guiding them around the hospital, working in our shop or engaging in our other services.

Reflecting on the services we provide I am deeply struck that we can only do so with the support, respect and trust of our professional colleagues within the hospital, I am immensely grateful for this but recognise that it has been earned over many years by our wonderful volunteers. Thank you one and all.