Aims of the League of Friends

The aims of the League of Friends are quite simple: "to raise funds to help with items which would benefit the patients that the Trust cannot fund from its own budgets.". In an ideal world, we shouldn't need to fund equipment requests but, as we all know, the NHS and Trusts cannot purchase everything but must prioritise. We do have our own criteria for what we purchase because we take the view that some items should always be purchased by our Trust. This not only covers us not buying office furniture, new chairs because colours do not match, and paying for training courses etc.  We think there are some items which should always be funded from departmental budget or the Trust.

The list of items we help to provide are varied. For instance, we paid for metal detectors in the A&E department which are used on children to detect any metal coins etc. they may have swallowed. This saves them having an x-ray investigation which means the trust saves money and the child doesn't get distressed. We also helped the Trust to purchase top of the range machines costing thousands of pounds.

We always try to help our Elderly Care Patients who are generally in hospital for a long time. We make sure they get a Gift at Christmas and something for Easter.

As long as it benefits patients we will help if we can, because patients are and always will be our first priority. And finally, whatever changes take place within the hospital, or the Trust, our dedicated volunteers are always there to provide whatever support they can.