at a glance: hospitals, shops, cafés and support services

WRVS run more than 500 shops, cafés and tea bars in more than 300 hospitals.

We raise a significant amount of money through this network. For the majority of our projects in hospitals, any surpluses we generate are set aside by the trustees to give back to the hospitals so they can improve facilities and patient care. In return we take a management fee to contribute to the cost of running our services to help older people
in their homes and communities. In other cases we operate in hospitals under more commercial arrangements where any profit we generate also goes towards meeting the cost of our services.

But our hospital services provide more than just funding.

Being in hospital can be a lonely and unsettling experience. WRVS volunteers and employees try to alleviate that for patients, visitors and staff, particularly for older people who make up over half of all patients and often have few visitors.

In addition to providing a chance for a chat in one of our shops and cafés, we also provide a range of support services:

• 96 ward trolley rounds providing an important link for people confined to their wards
• 47 other support services where volunteers visit patients at their bedside, accompany patients to in-hospital appointments, help with transport to the hospital or run an information desk for patients and visitors
• six schemes that provide support to older people returning home to ensure they are comfortable, safe and well and to help them avoid having to return to hospital.