PRIMARY CARE

RSVP West’s services operate where people need them most, often in situations in which effective alternatives don’t exist. To take a typical case, many people who need to see their doctor have trouble reaching the surgery. Perhaps they’re elderly, infirm, disabled, or they live some way away and there’s no bus route. This is a situation in which volunteers can make a great difference. RSVP West’s Patient Support Group at the Fallodon Way Surgery in Bristol is typical of several schemes we run in the region.

A team of some twenty voluntary drivers is on call to ferry patients to and from the Medical Centre. In exceptional circumstances, drivers will take patients to and from local hospitals, though it takes so much longer, there is such difficulty in parking and there is so much demand for the surgery run that they can’t do this very often. Drivers are covered against any problem that might arise by RSVP’s personal accident and third party insurance. Patients make a small contribution to the cost of each journey—the funds raised are used to pay the out-of-pocket expenses of the drivers; the balance provides an annual day trip for elderly patients. The scheme’s organiser works closely with the surgery’s Practice Manager, each week matching

Volunteer driver Jill Whitehead offers a helping hand to her passenger Winifred Schafer at the Medical Centre.

drivers to patients to be sure that needs are met. Drivers make about three trips a month on average.

The organiser of the scheme is Janet Drew. “The demand has gone up a lot in recent years, from about 100 trips a year to more than 400 now. We would very much like to get more drivers so that we can expand the service. What some potential volunteers don’t appreciate is that we only call on drivers about once a fortnight — once a week at the most — so it’s hardly arduous. I got involved some years ago after I’d retired from being a care assistant. The surgery posted a notice asking for drivers and I thought ‘someday someone will have to give me a lift to the surgery so why don’t I have a go now and help out while I can?’ I became organiser a couple of years later. The job isn’t so difficult: I maintain the rota and also do my share of the driving.”

It’s obvious that the patients benefit from the scheme. But the doctors at the surgery benefit, too, because they have to make fewer house calls. Also, they can assess patients using all the facilities in the surgery rather than the limited ones available at the patient’s home, so they can provide treatment that’s more timely and effective, which helps both the patient and the doctor. And the volunteer drivers benefit too, not only through a feeling of being valuable, but often through the increased personal and community contact they get.

© 2003–08 RSVP West. Page last updated on 10 April 2006.