Helping Hands from the North East Could Transform Local NHS Care

Local TV

Health leaders are calling on thousands of people across the North East to step forward as NHS volunteers, with new figures showing the region could unlock hundreds of thousands of support hours to help tackle long waiting lists and ease pressure on frontline staff.

Transcript

00:00Health leaders are stepping up a push for a major expansion of hospital

00:04response volunteers, non-clinical helpers to support NHS wards, arguing they could

00:10help ease soaring waiting times and free up staff for more complex tasks. A new

00:14YouGov poll suggests around 16% of people in the North East would consider

00:19volunteering in such roles, potentially forming a volunteer pool of around 355,000

00:25individuals. Meanwhile 86% of NHS staff nationally say that well-trained volunteer

00:32support improves the quality of care delivered. At a national level the YouGov

00:37poll found that 18 to 24 year olds showed a particular enthusiasm for NHS

00:42volunteering, with a third of respondents in this age group indicating that they

00:46would consider signing up, compared to 28% of 25 to 34 year olds, 23% in 35 to 54

00:53and 20% of those aged over 55. Dr Jennifer Dixon, chief executive of the

01:00Health Foundation said, it's fascinating to see that young adults seem to have the

01:04highest levels of appetite for NHS volunteering and heartening that so many

01:08of them want to do something practical to help others in need, as well as support

01:12the NHS, which in turn can offer them so much. The volunteers wouldn't replace

01:18clinicians campaigners emphasise, but would take on key logistical and patient

01:22support tasks, collecting prescriptions, escorting patients to scans, transporting

01:27lab samples, restocking wards or serving refreshments. According to help forces

01:32modelling, recruiting 10,000 new response volunteers nationally could generate 1.1

01:37million hours of efficiency gains across the NHS every year. The appeal comes

01:42against a backdrop of a stretched health system and a mounting treatment backlog.

01:47Nationally, the waiting list for effective and non-urgent procedures recently stood at

01:51over 7.46 million, following a fourth consecutive monthly drop in 2024. In the

01:58north-east in Cumbria, diagnostic weights have improved, with only 11.3% of patients

02:03now having to wait more than six weeks for tests, which is nearly half the national average.

02:07Yet not all is well. In the north-east, the number of patients awaiting non-urgent hospital

02:12treatment rose to nearly 326,000 in January, an increase from the previous year, with 6,671

02:22people waiting over a year. Elsewhere, 69% of patients in the north-east and Cumbria currently

02:27access treatment within 18 weeks of referral, ahead of the national average of nearly 57%, though

02:33that still falls short of the NHS target. So what do locals think? Would the volunteering

02:38scheme be as feasible and effective as campaigners suggest?

02:42I think that's a good idea. I mean, it's very kind of those people, because it is an issue,

02:47certainly with rising waiting lists, and it's a hard solution to solve. So if the volunteering

02:55can help, I don't know if they'll have medical backgrounds. I don't know how they can help.

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