One of the aims of the Friends of the Hospital Clínic’s volunteer programme is to make the hospital humanize the hospital. This is achieved through the volunteers’ dedication and commitment. However, the current pandemic meant that these volunteers’ functions in the Hospital had to be rethought. Through the Volunteer Office, volunteers are found and trained, based on the needs identified by various Institutes or Services that are always relied on to guarantee the successful incorporation of volunteers.
Among the actions led by the various teams of volunteers ("Friends of the Hospital Clínic” and the Hospital Clínic professionals Corporate Volunteers), coordinated by the Corporate Social Responsibility Area, it is worth highlighting the following:
- Support for outpatient care, the Biomedical Diagnostic Centre and the Vaccination Centre. Welcoming, informing and guiding users when they visit the hospital. Volunteers continue to provide support by giving advice to patients and their companions in order to respect the hygiene and safety measures in place as a result of the pandemic, avoiding large groups of people gathering, which could place the patients’ health at risk.
- Support for vaccinations. A group of retired nurses joined the Hospital Clínic’s vaccination team, giving vaccines to professionals and patients. At present, a group of volunteers is also providing support in the vaccination programme that is being carried out at Sant Isidor Church.
- Corporate volunteers. A hundred professionals from the Hospital Clínic-IDIBAPS helped manage the donations of materials and food that arrived at the Hospital during the first wave. These professionals also provided support at the Medicalized Hotel, which was open for a few months at the Hotel Catalonia Barcelona Plaza-Plaça Espanya. They were also responsible for ensuring that hundreds of letters of support and encouragement reached the professionals and patients at the most critical moments of the pandemic. Around thirty professionals from the Campus also provided support at the call centre set up at the Hospital for RAC1 radio station’s special programme, ‘Versió Clínic’ (‘Clínic Version’), broadcast on 30 September 2020 in order to help raise money for research into COVID-19. They also handed out roses and books to all the professionals and patients on Saint George’s Day, in order to ensure everyone enjoyed this special day despite the pandemic.
- Care for newborn babies who are not able to receive adequate care. A group of volunteers support newborn babies who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their fathers or mothers (hospitalization, termination of parental rights, etc.). This volunteer service is carried out at the Maternity Hospital Centre.
The work carried out by the volunteers is considered to be extremely valuable by professionals, patients and family members, since it gives added value to the quality of the care provided to the patients.
Their efforts, already recognized by the Hospital, have demonstrated these volunteers’ level of commitment and how involved they have been in the institution during the pandemic. However, above all they have shown the great human qualities of all those who form part of the "Friends of the Hospital Clínic” Volunteers and the Corporate Volunteers.
