Volunteers help hospital get the small things right
Steve Astaire doesn’t want visitors making a song and dance about not knowing where to go in Northwick Park Hospital.
The volunteer is part of the ‘meet and greet’ team at main reception helping steer patients and visitors in the right direction.
It is hard-earned knowledge for the former stockbroker who volunteers twice a week and reckons he now knows every nook and cranny of the site.
Steve said: “I started here in 2018 as a way of giving back. It is not the easiest place to find your way around and am glad to hear there is way-finding project underway to replace all the directional signage.
“People have enough to worry about when they come here without getting lost. I would say I help around 35 people during one of my three hour shifts.
One of Steve’s most useful tools is Google Translate in a borough where more than 100 languages are spoken.
“I enjoy helping people and it is always nice when someone stops me on the way out to say thank you. It’s a bit like working in air traffic control. I just help keep things moving.
The ‘first contact’ approach to improving patients’ initial impression of the hospital is also being led by volunteers like Anna Donovan who bring some extra TLC to the A&E department by addressing some of the small but persistent concerns raised by patients and their families.
Anna said: “I do everything from sit and talk with patients to acting as an advocate and making the tea.
“Sometimes, it is the small things that count and I go home feeling I have done something useful.”