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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