Hospital on Theresa May's doorstep used St John Ambulance volunteers in emergency department

A hospital “on Theresa May’s doorstep” called in the services of first aiders from St John Ambulance to free up staff time by helping in its emergency department.

Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, which is just 2.5 miles from the village of Sonning where the Prime Minister has her constituency home, told The Independent the volunteers were not used for clinical care.

Instead the first aiders were restocking supplies, like gloves and aprons, keeping patients company, and making hot drinks, under the supervision of NHS staff on Tuesday.

“All of these things enabled our clinical staff to focus their time on providing patient care,” the trust told The Independent.

The Royal Berkshire was the only English trust identified as having made use of St John Ambulance volunteers, so far, when asked by The Independent.

However, virtually all hospitals have banks of local volunteers who are on hand to help with transport, interacting with patients, and other roles.

Volunteer numbers are set to double under an NHS-backed scheme, and Labour said their commitment to the NHS must not become a long-term solution to Tory austerity.

The trust did not comment on why it had used St John Ambulance volunteers in this case and Shadow Health Minister Justin Madders said their being drafted in on the PM’s doorstep was “shocking”.

This comes in a week when the NHS told trusts they should cancel tens of thousands of elective operations, and many more appointments, to protect urgent care services.

County Antrim Hospital, Northern Ireland, was forced to draft in St John volunteers to help on its emergency wards because of “extreme pressures”.

Meanwhile, in Scotland, head office staff were used to help with ward cleaning amid soaring A&E pressures.

Staff in County Antrim complained about the use of the first aiders, who they said are trained in pre-hospital care and were therefore inappropriate for use on a hospital ward.

Today the Prime Minister toured another NHS hospital, Frimley Park in Surrey, and apologised to thousands of patients facing delays to their operations because of the cancellations.

However, she repeated her message that the NHS was “better prepared for this winter than ever before”, after receiving a last minute injection of funding in the Autumn Budget.

A spokesperson for St John Ambulance told The Independent its volunteers had provided low-level support, saying: “In response to and working closely with the Royal Berkshire Hospital Trust, we were able to deploy a number of trained first aiders from our active network of volunteers.

“This demonstrates how vital our work can be in our local communities, actively increasing community resilience and alleviating pressure on the NHS in times of need.”

A spokesperson for Royal Berkshire said: “The six volunteers from St John Ambulance helped in our Emergency Department for a period of five hours, and under supervision of members of staff carried out a number of activities, such as stocking up the gloves and aprons, talking with patients – particularly those who came in alone – making drinks, and helping patients and relatives by letting them know about facilities in the hospital.

“They did not provide clinical care – they were in the hospital providing non-clinical support, alongside our usual cohort of regular volunteers.

Justin Madders said: “That a hospital on Theresa May’s own doorstep had to rely on St John Ambulance to help deliver safe patient care is a shocking indication of this appalling winter crisis.

“It is fantastic that volunteers care so deeply about the health service but they must not be deployed as a solution to Tory austerity, which has left our NHS severely underfunded and understaffed.”

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “Charities and social enterprises such as British Red Cross, Age UK and St John Ambulance and many others have been doing amazing voluntary work in the NHS since its creation – so this is nothing new.”

“All of these things enabled our clinical staff to focus their time on providing patient care,” a trust spokesperson said.