A service run by volunteers at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) is proving to be great success with more than 4,000 care package parcels delivered to patients in hospital since its launch just three months ago.

The Parcels for Patients (P4P) service, set up to support inpatients unable to have visitors due to COVID-19, enables friends and relatives to deliver essential care packages to their loved ones. Friends and relatives can also collect items from patients on the wards via the service.

Friends and relatives can drop parcels Monday to Friday 10:00–16:00 and Saturday and Sunday, 12:00–16:00 to the following locations:

• Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham’s main entrance, charity hub
• Good Hope Hospital’s Richard Salt Unit entrance
• Heartlands Hospital’s main entrance

On arriving with packages, friends/relatives are asked to complete a form with the details of the patient and the package. All packages are wrapped in a cleanable material such as plastic and sealed and labelled with the patient’s name and ward.

Emma Hale, volunteer service lead said: "Managing the risk of transmission of COVID-19 both from the community into the hospitals and hospitals to the community has been a real challenge for our Trust and the NHS as a whole.

"We are pleased to be able to support our patients and their loves ones to keep in touch at this challenging time and we are thrilled at how quickly the P4P scheme has grown in popularity. We can thank our volunteers enough for giving their time to help support this scheme."

P4P is one of several schemes introduced since the introduction of restricted visiting as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

450 ipads provided by UHB Charity are being used to facilitate "virtual visiting" for patients and their loved ones. The "Letters for Loved Ones" service also provides a way for loved ones to send messages, letters and photographs to their family members or friends in hospital.