1. Communities as ‘renewable energy’ for healthcare services? a multimethods study into the form, scale and role of voluntary support for community hospitals in England
- Author
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Angela Ellis Paine, Daiga Kamerāde, John Mohan, and Deborah Davidson
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,Volunteers ,Resource (biology) ,National Health Programs ,coproduction ,Hospitals, Community ,Commission ,Resource Allocation ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Nursing ,Patient experience ,Health care ,Medicine ,Financial Support ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,community hospitals ,Human resources ,Qualitative Research ,Original Research ,business.industry ,030503 health policy & services ,Role ,General Medicine ,sustainability ,Focus group ,Community hospital ,Social Validity, Research ,volunteering ,Attitude ,England ,Social Perception ,Charities ,Scale (social sciences) ,voluntary income ,Female ,Health Services Research ,0305 other medical science ,business - Abstract
ObjectiveTo examine the forms, scale and role of community and voluntary support for community hospitals in England.DesignA multimethods study. Quantitative analysis of Charity Commission data on levels of volunteering and voluntary income for charities supporting community hospitals. Nine qualitative case studies of community hospitals and their surrounding communities, including interviews and focus groups.SettingCommunity hospitals in England and their surrounding communities.ParticipantsCharity Commission data for 245 community hospital Leagues of Friends. Interviews with staff (89), patients (60), carers (28), volunteers (35), community representatives (20), managers and commissioners (9). Focus groups with multidisciplinary teams (8 groups across nine sites, involving 43 respondents), volunteers (6 groups, 33 respondents) and community stakeholders (8 groups, 54 respondents).ResultsCommunities support community hospitals through: human resources (average=24 volunteers a year per hospital); financial resources (median voluntary income = £15 632); practical resources through services and activities provided by voluntary and community groups; and intellectual resources (eg, consultation and coproduction). Communities provide valuable supplementary resources to the National Health Service, enhancing community hospital services, patient experience, staff morale and volunteer well-being. Such resources, however, vary in level and form from hospital to hospital and over time: voluntary income is on the decline, as is membership of League of Friends, and it can be hard to recruit regular, active volunteers.ConclusionsCommunities can be a significant resource for healthcare services, in ways which can enhance patient experience and service quality. Harnessing that resource, however, is not straight forward and there is a perception that it might be becoming more difficult questioning the extent to which it can be considered sustainable or ‘renewable’.
- Published
- 2019