Staff and volunteers at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) are celebrating after claiming two top places at a prestigious national awards ceremony.

QEHB’s volunteer buggy service was crowned winner of the 'environment of care' category at the Patient Experience Network National Awards (PENNA) at Birmingham Repertory Theatre, while the hospital’s Community Orchard and Gardens project took the runners-up spot.

Pat Wilson, Voluntary Services Manager at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), said: “I never thought for a minute that we would win this award against some stiff competition, especially our orchard. I was absolutely delighted because the buggy service does make a huge difference.

“It’s a great service. The buggy drivers are often the first people patients and visitors meet when arriving at QEHB and they present a welcoming and friendly face for our organisation.”

The service has been running since April 2012 using a modified golf buggy and has carried more than 55,000 passengers. It has been so well received that consideration is now being given to a similar service inside the hospital.

“We were getting a lot of feedback from patients about the distance from the car parks to the main entrance, especially for people who were unwell or elderly, so we came up with the idea for the buggy,” added Pat.

“It’s become more and more popular since its introduction and we have had some unusual requests in its time, with people asking to go from QEHB across to the Birmingham Women’s Hospital, for instance. We even had one request to take someone to the University railway station”

The service, which runs Monday-Friday from 08:30/09:00-16:00, is currently manned by 15 volunteers and is on the lookout for two more drivers.

“The volunteers are great,” said Pat. “When one of them is unavailable they contact each other or Voluntary Services to make sure that there is cover and the service always has a driver.

“This is just one example of how volunteers make an enormous difference to patient experience at QEHB and we are very proud of it. We would not be able to accomplish many of the things we do without volunteers.”

Mandy Green, Head of Patient Experience, added: “To have won this award is great news for us. It is just reward for the fantastic efforts of all of the volunteers and staff involved and their commitment to making patients’ experience at QEHB the best that it can be.”

The Community Orchard and Gardens is being developed with assistance from Helping Britain Blossom and The Conservation Volunteers and is bringing together a variety of community groups and organisations to take ownership of unused areas on the QE site for the benefit of patients, visitors and staff.

Anyone interested in volunteering to be a buggy driver should contact the Voluntary Services Team or visit the Volunteer care makers page.

Tel: 0121 371 6731
Email: Voluntary.Services@uhb.nhs.uk