Cardiff & Vale Health Board volunteer Frank Beamish dedicates 560 plus hours during Covid.

Frank is a highly competent and proactive volunteer who goes out of his way to help the Voluntary Services Team and new volunteers as well as patients, visitors, members of the public and other Health Board staff.

Frank was originally taken on, pre-Covid, as a Ward Befriender and Patient Survey Volunteer. After being stood down in these roles due to the pandemic he was one of the first volunteers to return to help out as a Meet and Greet volunteer in the hospitals and mass vaccination centres.

Since returning to volunteer Frank has dedicated an impressive 560 plus volunteering hours and this does not include the uncounted hours that he puts in at home, undertaking extra tasks of his own will. He was also one of the very first volunteers to help out the Patient Experience staff during Covid, when the staff were still under a great deal of pressure.

Frank did not hesitate to come into the hospital on set days to undertake the role of sorting out thousands of donated toiletries, clothes and much more so that they could be boxed up and taken to wards for patients to use while they were not able to have visitors. His passion to help out while the nation was undergoing an extremely stressful time and putting others before himself was very touching and the help was greatly received by staff.

He then moved onto the Runner Volunteer (helping with the Clothing Collection and Drop off Service – physically getting clothes to patients that could not receive visitors) and the Meet and Greet role, located in the main entrance of the hospital, to help patients, visitors and staff to navigate the hospital. He was integral to putting together updated maps, a tally system so that the number of people passing through and asking volunteers for help could be recorded and created new “Volunteers Here to Help” signs and posters to display. All this was done of his own will and in his own time. Frank offered to do this as he knew staff were extremely busy. He also helped the Voluntary Services Team by trial testing two new areas for the Meet and Greet role by spending time in those areas, gaining a sense of the busy days and times, putting tally sheets together and contributing to new maps and A-Z sheets in these areas. This was all done before other volunteers were invited to sign up for shifts in those areas.

The extra volunteer work Frank took on helped staff to settle volunteers into their new roles / areas and enabled new volunteers to be better supported in their roles. His dedication to making the services better also greatly helped and showed compassion towards fellow volunteers and the busy Voluntary Services staff during a difficult period.

When the call came for volunteers to help out in the mass vaccination centres Frank signed up and was in the first group of volunteers present on the opening day. Frank became pivotal in putting together the guide on the tasks the mass vaccination centre volunteers would undertake and this was put into an official document by the Voluntary Services Managers and used for new volunteers. He would welcome new volunteers, buddy up with them and show them the area, thus helping new volunteers to support visitors having their vaccine. Frank carried this work onto one other mass vaccination centre.

Frank was the eyes on the ground where the Voluntary Services Managers could not always be, and this allowed for up to date and correct information about the centres to be shared with other staff and volunteers when needed. His willingness to always be there to help and go above and beyond, undertaking extra work quietly, without expecting anything in return has been appreciated by the Cardiff and Vale Health Board voluntary services staff, hospital staff and mass vaccination centre staff alike.

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