Sandwell Hospital shop will close after 30 years
A shop at Sandwell Hospital has shut after 30 years of being run by volunteers.
Selling greetings cards, food and newspapers, the Royal Voluntarily Service shop, which has around 20 members of staff, with three full-time employees, has shut with no concrete plans by the hospital as to what will replace it.
The trolley service will continue for patients on wards who cannot walk very far.
The closure has been met with shock by volunteers who say the shop is a vital part of the hospital for both visitors and patients.
But hospital bosses insist the volunteers should not feel rejected following the decision, assuring them they are still important to the running of the site.
David Payne, aged 58 from Stone Cross, has been volunteering for nearly four years and is bitterly disappointed by the decision.
He said: "It's an important service to the hospital and I feel it will be terribly missed. It's a great shame this seems to be a financial decision rather than thinking what is best for patients, but we'll have to accept it.
Chief Nurse Colin Ovington said of the situation: "Historically we had an agreement with the Royal Voluntary Service to manage the trust's volunteers, and so ensured any volunteer who wished to continue with their valuable work could do so, by joining our own service.
"We are pleased many volunteers from the Royal Voluntary Service have already joined us, and we are attracting many more from across all the communities we serve.
"As part of the changes to our service, the current Royal Voluntary Service retail shop at Sandwell will close, and we are currently reviewing how we best use the facility going forwards and plan to continue the trolley service for patients on our wards."
He added: "Volunteers are vital to our trust and we decided that we wanted to operate our own service.
"This has led to the transfer of volunteers back into our organisation and the closure of the shop at Sandwell."
