Voluntary Board of St Bartholomew

Dedicated to help

The Charity is dedicated to helping the Hospital and those for whom it cares in the most personal manner possible. Once a need has been identified between patient and staff, the aim is to make help immediately available where possible. The limited resources of the Charity invariably result in the individual grants being modest in size, but this is balanced by the fact grants are for items which matter a great deal to the individual patient.

A young man with testicular cancer came to Barts with his Mother for an outpatient appointment. Against his expectation, he was immediately admitted to the Hospital. The Charity paid for the Mother to spend three nights in accommodation near the Hospital. Without this arrangement the young man would not have agreed to inpatient care.
A patient suffering from breast cancer with a distinctive afro hair style, suffered very badly during her chemotheraphy treatment. Mainstream NHS services were unable to provide an appropriate wig following her loss of hair. Charitable funds helped the patient to purchase an appropriate wig.
On occasions, particularly when patients are able to be discharged sooner than originally expected, financial help with travel, often a relatively minor sum, can make the difference between returning home or remaining in hospital for a further period. This is where the Charity has been the most supportive to patients assisting in very many cases with special transport arrangements after stressful or difficult outpatient and diagnostic appointments, arrangements being made in conjunction with the nursing staff on duty at that time.
On behalf of a daughter of a long term St Bartholomew’s patient who had given up her paid work to care for her parents, a request was received for some information technology equipment. A sum of £150 was made available.
The Hospital’s church, Barts the Less within the grounds of the Hospital has for many years been a haven for patients, their relatives and carers and for staff, regardless of denomination. A reading of the comments left by those who visit the church from within the Hospital, readily confirms this. The charity recently underwrote the cost of a salary to enable the church to remain open and available to all at the Hospital.

On the advice of staff who are in direct contact with patients, the Charity has identified particular services where the appointment of a staff member would greatly assist the patient, and perhaps break new ground. Examples have been in terms of bereavement counselling and specialist cancer services. The intention has been for the Charity to provide initial finance, with the NHS subsequently taking over the funding.
Staff support – with the firm belief that a hospital is as good as the staff who serve it, the Charity welcomes applications for the funding of specialist courses, in addition to short term appointments. Additionally, the Charity holds a number of long established funds set up by individual donations for the award of prizes for a range of staff employed by the Hospital, including awards for medical, nursing and ancillary staff, and those in certain training grades.
Medical Equipment – funding medical and associated equipment following requests by staff are much welcomed by the Hospital.
The Charity, working with staff of the Hospital, provided funds for a DVD “Supporting Families of People with Cancer”. This has proved to be invaluable to patients and their families at a most difficult time in the lives of all concerned.

These examples of how the Charity has been able to provide direct help and benefit to individual patients have in many cases not involved a large investment. However, to the individual at the time of need, it was of paramount importance and particularly timely.

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