Interviewer

Good morning.

 

Barbara

Good morning.

 

Interviewer

Could I start by asking your name?

 

Barbara

Barbara Wren.

 

Interviewer

And Barbara, how old are you?

 

Barbara

I’ll be 80 this year.

 

Interviewer

Excellent.

 

Barbara

This is where you’re supposed to say, “God, you don’t look it.”

 

Interviewer

Well, you don’t. I think you’re doing really well. And could I ask which League of Friends we’re talking about today?

 

Barbara

Brentwood Community Hospital.

Interviewer

Thank you. So, Barbara, have you always lived around here? What’s your life been like?

 

Barbara

Moved into Brentwood in 1969 when we were first married and then moved to Shenfield in 1971. And I’ve been there ever since. Yes. Worked in the local school. Eventually left in 2000.

 

Interviewer

Okay.

 

Barbara

Yes. 2000.

 

Interviewer

So, could I ask what you did in the local school?

 

Barbara

I was a school bursar.

 

Interviewer

And what does a bursar do?

 

Barbara

Looks after the finances, keeps the school afloat financially, looks after ancillary staff, looks after teaching staff, helps teaching staff with their budgets, just trying to keep financially sound.

 

Interviewer

And as part of that role, did you have any initiatives that you got set up or got started?

 

Barbara

Yes, we actually took on board the catering staff. They used to work for Essex County Council, and they were contracted out, and we decided that we would like to take them in-house. So, their arrangements were better for them. They got sick leave, et cetera, et cetera, which worked out absolutely admirably. Set up a breakfast club for the students. That was incredibly successful, and it was lovely because there was some kids that didn’t necessarily have the best of home life, shall we say. Then set up the school uniform shop, which developed into a little stationary shop, but it came under the umbrella of the school. So, all the profit then went back to the school and helped fund other issues that were always ongoing, as they are in a school.

 

Interviewer

So, people might think of a bursar as just being really good at double entry bookkeeping. But actually, there’s a lot more creative skills, and life skills involved in the role.

 

Barbara

I think you’re quite right, and perhaps ordinarily that would be the situation, but that’s not my character. If I can see something that would be better then I can’t help but speak up about it, which I did to the Governors.

 

Interviewer

So, living locally, I guess you and your family would’ve used the local health services. So, what health services did you get involved in over the years?

 

Barbara

Health services, only from a personal point of view. The children, local doctors being the same doctor all these years. I actually was an inpatient at the old hospital for surgery, which I had, and remember it very well that there used to be an ancillary member of staff that used to cook the porridge overnight in the kitchen and we’d wake up the smell of this porridge, and it tasted disgusting. But the smell was okay. Yes, so, and then my parents by that time had moved to Hutton and my Mum was there in the old hospital. So, I’ve got lots of memories.

Interviewer

So, what gets you involved in volunteering?

 

Barbara

I’d always helped with the school fundraising. Both my children were local schools. And then in 1989 my mum went into the old Highwood hospital and was actually in there for three years before she got moved, I mean, this is in the days when it was long-term care, she got moved to a nursing home. And I used to go in every day and just could see the need. And they used to sit on tables of four, four ladies sitting at one table and one would say, “Barbara, while you’re out, could you get my daughter a birthday card?” or “Would you get her a bunch of flowers?” or, it was things like that that sort of made me think they need something here. So I set up a little trolley with the approval of the ward sister and this little trolley had postage stamps, cards, sweets, little gifts.

 

Barbara

And I carried on that for several years. And I also used to arrange to visit somebody who’s infirm and perhaps not necessarily comfortable with where they are. It was difficult to visit with them. So I also noticed that relatives found it difficult. So I started to do silly things like parties for the patients, but invited relatives. I used to do treasure hunts with patients going out in the wheelchairs, pushed by their relatives. And it was all kind of a bonding thing. And that went on, say for three years, every Christmas I fundraised the budget and bullied people into donating money so I could get them all a Christmas gift on my Mum’s ward, certainly. And then of course, yes, Mum moved, and it was then that I heard of the League of Friends.

 

Interviewer

Okay.

 

Barbara

So, I went along to one of their meetings and that’s kind of how it started.

Interviewer

So that’s the League of Friends of Highwood? Yes. Okay. So today, we’re at Brentwood Community Hospital. Yes. So how do we get from Highwood to Brentwood Community Hospital?

 

Barbara

Well, Highwood obviously closed, which obviously also meant that the League of Friends was disbanded. We had a shop at the old Highwood. It was an old doctor’s house, actually, and had gone into total disrepair. But we used that to fundraise for the hospital as a League of Friends. I wasn’t doing this individually, and we’d raise money so we had to pass on money as well, which we did to various local charities. But yes, that was really, really sad, because once again, there was people there that had been on that League of Friends for some considerable time, but had nowhere to go after that they didn’t want to transfer to here. Probably because I was maybe one of the youngest, I didn’t mind transferring because by then it had already got under my skin, and in my blood.

Interviewer

So, for those people listening, we are in a new build built in 1990s, something like that.

 

Barbara

Here? No, 2010. It’s only been open 15 years.

 

Interviewer

Oh, okay. So 2010, 2009, 2010. Okay. So it is a relatively new build and people will think of Brentwood as almost being part of London, but actually this is a proper community hospital and for people who don’t know, it’s very rural around here as well. It’s a nice sort of green local community. So for people who don’t understand what this hospital might be like, do you have wards? Do you have inpatients?

 

Barbara

We certainly do. We have two wards currently, both with 25 beds. So it’s 50 patients in all which comes and goes obviously.

 

Interviewer

And do they tend to be older people? Why would they be admitted here?

 

Barbara

One of the wards very recently has come over from St. Peter’s at Maldon. Their hospital was being closed, because it was so old. Apparently, I don’t know full details. So, they’ve taken one of the wards, which is Bayman and they are predominantly stroke patients. So, they can be any age.

 

Interviewer

Absolutely.

 

Barbara

I know certainly pre-covid that we had a patient on one our old wards, she was only about 29, pregnant, and had a stroke. So yes, it can be any age.

 

Interviewer

So one ward is stroke and the other ward?

 

Barbara

General.

 

Interviewer

General.

 

Barbara

They sometimes come here for rehab physiotherapy, from Basildon.

 

Interviewer

And do you have an outpatient here as well?

 

Barbara (

We do. We have, yes. Several facilities, outpatients, physio, x-ray, minor surgeries, scanning. So yes, it’s used quite a lot.

 

Interviewer

And a very nice big coffee shop as well.

 

Barbara

Yes. That obviously doesn’t belong to the hospital. Yes. It’s very nice.

 

Interviewer

So what did the Friends do here?

 

Barbara

The Friends, when it first opened, I personally was asked if there was any way we could set up some sort of kiosk. Well it was called the shop then I named it a kiosk because shops sounds so, and I looked at the facility, it is literally a broom cupboard. But I looked and I thought, yes, I can make something out of that. I can do something with that. And that is entirely what we do now. We raise funds for the benefit of the hospital. If the wards send down to me and ask for, perhaps someone’s come in and they have nothing, clothing, toiletries, whatever. I will make sure that it’s provided for them. We don’t visit the wards. My volunteers are of an age where perhaps or infirmity that it’s not suitable for them to go on the wards. I do visit the wards only because I’ve tried to build up this rapport with staff.

 

Barbara

I want the staff to feel that they can come and talk to me, ask me things, which in the main seems to work. We, from the fundraising, the kiosk, we provide Christmas gifts and Easter gifts to all patients, male and female and that, yes, I’ve got a couple of letters that you may like to see. Just thanking us for those provisions makes a lot of difference to someone who maybe has nobody. That’s what you have to consider all the time: that not everybody has relatives who are able, there might be an elderly lady in here whose husband is elderly and infirm and doesn’t get to visit her. That’s sad. We, pre-covid, we were seriously involved in trying to purchase a mini bus. Well more, not so much a mini bus, more a disabled vehicle that could take patients home, and do home visits or if transport wasn’t going to arrive to actually take them home permanently until 11 o’clock at night, someone could use this vehicle. But of course with the onset of covid, we had to close the hospital, went into absolute chaos, and that wasn’t forthcoming. But post-covid it would appear that the need for it has reduced anyway. Okay. So perhaps Covid did us a favor, in that respect that we save 15,000 pounds.

 

Interviewer

So, what sort of people volunteer with the Friends at this hospital?

 

Barbara

I have one lady who, she’s well in her eighties, I won’t name her because she’ll be cross that I’ve admitted to that. Anyway, she actually worked in the old hospital with a League of Friends, and they had little coffee shop there, and she came with us to man our kiosk, which is nice. There was two other ladies unfortunately have died now, but they also came over. So, as I had to replace, I’m trying to replace with younger people. All League of Friends needs younger people, new ideas, new concepts. I’m very much for that. But trying to get young people to actually volunteer is very difficult. I also then decided that we need men as well as ladies because we were all ladies. So, I approached two couples. So, I now have two husband and wife teams. One does two hours because we’re only open 10 until 2.

 

Barbara

One does two hours, and then goes home, and the other one comes in, does it. And it works really nice, but I think it’s nice for the patient’s point of view to have a male presences as well as all females. We get heavily involved patients. For instance, if they’ve come up by transport, and they’ve had their appointment, they’re brought back to reception, and they just sit there until transport arrives. I’m very keen in asking them, would you like a drink? Do you need toilet facilities? Just to make them feel there’s nothing worse than sitting waiting for transport. And you’re sitting looking at the door and you think, is that for me? Is that for me? But not only because the female element, it’s nice that if there’s male patients there, they’ve got a male to talk to. And yes, that’s important to me, because as you quite rightly say we’re a community hospital and it’s not only people that are actually inpatients, but it’s all the outpatients as well.

 

Barbara

And if I may just go on to say, community also is very important to me because we’re a community hospital, I feel that we need to support the community, as well. So, a couple of our patients were active in the food banks locally. So, over the Christmas period with the agreement of League of Friends, I would provide Christmas decorations, table decorations. If we had anything come in, food wise, that I couldn’t possibly sell, I would give it to the homeless. I’m very up for that, as well. One of members of staff had involvement in homeless charities. So once again, if I had things that come in that I knew wasn’t suitable for our kiosk, I would pass on to them. So we are extending our community provision, but quietly. We don’t advertise it. It’s not, yes, it’s not well known. Committee know obviously because I always report to them. And I also provide clothing, particularly during covid when patients were coming literally in just their nightgowns had no clothes. We would provide that. Marks and Spencer’s helped me enormously, put a shout out to them. Yes, it was, it was awful at that particular time.

 

Interviewer

So, during Covid you had a lot more patients here?

 

Barbara

Yes. We went up to 300 beds. Golly. Offices were closed. We’ve got big a IT unit upstairs that was closed as IT, that was made into a ward. Yes, it was, it was grim.

 

Interviewer

And you were able to still help in some way during that, you know?

 

Barbara

Absolutely. Although remotely, I did come up. I never went on the wards. I had my own health issues, that I couldn’t actually go on the wards, but I would still provide and bring it up, and a member of staff would come down, and meet me, and take it off. So yes, we were still heavily involved.

 

Interviewer

So what I’ve heard today is that in every way, the group here live up to the term “friends”, you’re friends to the patients, you’re friends to the families, you’re friends to the staff, you’re friends to the wider community. And you do it with a full heart, I have to say, that’s been lovely to hear. Now, when you knew I was coming to speak to you today, is there anything you wanted to tell me that you haven’t had the chance to say yet?

 

Barbara

I don’t believe so. I didn’t, to be quite honest, didn’t think much about it because I didn’t quite know how it was going to pan out anyway. No. Trust me. If I had thought of something you would know.

 

Interviewer

Well it’s been lovely talking to you. Thank you for your time today, Barbara.

 

Barbara

Oh, thank you.