11/10/2022
Interesting volunteer opportunity:
Ambulance Welfare Volunteer.
We are currently re-establishing the Ambulance Welfare Service that keeps our hard working Ambulance Staff refreshed and cared for whilst they are at work.
We are investing in four Ambulance Welfare Vehicles that will be stationed within each of the four sectors;
South – Northwich Ambulance Station
West – Ellesmere Port Ambulance Station
North – Fazakerley Ambulance Station
East – St. Helens Ambulance Station
They will visit all of the emergency departments within their Sector and will be requested by EOC to attend at pinch points where our colleagues are queuing for long periods of time to handover their patient’s. The service will operate between the hours of 10 – 22:00 7 days per week, with a possible extension into early hours of the morning subject to demand and operational availability of our hard working Ambulance Welfare volunteers.
We are also looking at the possibility of introducing an On Call service where we could ask designated on call volunteers to attend emergency departments experiencing extreme pressure and demand, from home, to perform this task at short notice.
The role involves crewing the welfare vehicle, making available provisions to Ambulance Crews including light refreshments and snacks, and providing a rest point where our colleagues can relax and have a chat with another member of the green family. It’s important that we keep all of our emergency responders supported and looked after, including yourselves, as without all of you our communities would be very much worse off.
Many of our CFR volunteers who undertook this role previously found it to be an ideal opportunity to forge sound working relationships with operational colleagues, with one of our Ambulance Welfare volunteers being nominated by his Paramedic and EMT colleagues for a one of our Regional Star awards!
The role of the Ambulance Welfare volunteer has scope for further development, but we need your help for that to truly take flight. All volunteers will receive an Ambulance Welfare volunteer induction, briefing and awareness session, including an introduction to your base Station and the operational aspects of delivering the service and the use of the Ambulance Welfare Vehicle.
We know that some of you are already doing your bit responding or helping in other ways such as CFR and community training, or undertaking community Defibrillator support roles in your locality, but this could be an ideal role and opportunity for one of our First Responder colleagues who may have been stood down for some time, and/or who may wish to take up a new volunteering opportunity within the NHS and NWAS. It could also be an opportunity for a friend or relative or someone who may be interested in joining the Ambulance Service in the future as a salaried colleague. Please reach out to those that may be interested.
We ask that our external applicants have a full driving licence with no more than 3 points (6 points could be acceptable). As this is a non – Patient facing role there would be no requirement for either an enhanced or standard Disclosure and Barring service check (E/DBS).
We also recognise that some people would prefer to go out accompanied by someone else, so we are happy for people to work in pairs too. This includes CFR too.
You WILL be looked after whilst you undertake this role.
Ambulance Welfare Volunteer Co-ordinator.
Should you not be able to support the actual delivery of the Ambulance Welfare Volunteer role, we are also looking for four co-ordinators who can help myself, Sam Sellars and Rebecca Clark establish and support those roles within each of the four sectors. I have no issues if you wished to support one particular sector of your choosing.
This role could be performed working from home and we will support you with any tools you require to undertake this task. You can provide as many or as few hours each week that you wish to work, but we anticipate in the early part of development that it would be extremely helpful if you could be available for 8- 12 Hours each week. Any help, however small the hours, is very much welcomed.
Please could you reply to camcrtinterests@nwas.nhs.uk; including the words ‘Ambulance Welfare Volunteer’ into the subject line of the email.
