NHS hospitals have lost more than 1,500 volunteers since the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Federation of Health Volunteers (FNVS) said on Wednesday, as it wants them back to ensure the hospital environment is “humanised”.
This is the priority message of the meeting that next Saturday will gather in São João da Madeira, Aveiro district, 20 institutions from all over the country involved in hospital volunteering, representing the 56 that make up the universe of FNVS and other organizations. bodies that intervene in the sector.
“We currently have about 5,000 registered volunteers among our 56 staff, but due to Covid-19, 30% to 50% of these people have stopped performing the tasks they had in hospitals because due to old age and chronic diseases, they began to be afraid of being there,” FNVS President Carlos Pinto Ribeiro told Lusa.
Therefore, this official announces that the federation’s priority now is, on the one hand, “the recovery of these volunteers”, taking into account that “the development of medicine and the measures taken by the health authorities mean that a return to hospitals is no longer possible.” pose risks” and, on the other hand, “to ensure that the people who really need to leave are replaced by younger elements”, for which a school awareness program is already being implemented, aimed at engaging students when they reach adulthood.
“Volunteers make an extremely important contribution to the humanization of healthcare,” says Carlos Pinto Ribeiro.
“This sector is very dehumanized, and volunteers are the privileged liaison between the user and healthcare workers in specific and sometimes very daunting aspects, such as navigating the internal maze of a hospital, using machines to issue passwords for appointments and visits, distributing small portions of food to waiting rooms, feeding weaker patients, supporting women in labor, dealing with grief and communicating with families,” he says.
To help implement these activities, the FNVS meeting on Saturday includes a training component, with speakers such as Isabelle Jaunet, president of the Portuguese Federation of Food Banks Against Hunger, and João Moita, a professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu who is researching the impact of medical volunteering on national economy.
Another component of the event includes entertainment activities, which will be a “gesture of gratitude to the volunteers,” since, according to Carlos Pinto Ribeiro, they “have not received the recognition they deserve from the state and other public organizations.”
The president of the FNVS explains: “We do not want any compensation and have never approved of proposals from some parties, such as tax breaks or free transport for those who volunteer, because we believe that this work should continue to be truly voluntary, without expectation of anything.” or in return, but in fact there is a lack of proper public recognition of the efforts and dedication of these people.”
As an example, Carlos Pinto Ribeiro cites the case of the League of Friends and Volunteers at the Centro Hospitalar Tondela Viseu: during the pandemic alone, volunteers from this institution provided “more than 40,000 hours of free work in the local vaccination center, which is an exceptional achievement.” a feat, considering everything that comes with giving up and reorganizing your personal and family life.”