£48,000 appeal to ensure the Royal Rover’s return

LEAGUE of Friends members (from the left) Sylvia Holland, Pat Wild, Christine Parmley, Betty Tomlinson, Pam Brocklehurst, Ann Morris, Rose Hall, Ann Garside, Alison Wild, Joan Tomlinson (chairman), and Hazel Hewitt gather to hand over a cheque to Pam Wilkinson, patient administration office manager, Chris Mylott, voluntary services manager, and volunteer drivers Colin Thomson and David Farraday.

Hospital mini-bus needs replacing

THE wheels have been set in motion for a new £48,000 mini-bus to ferry patients, visitors and staff around the Royal Oldham Hospital site.

The hospital’s fund-raising League of Friends handed over £5,000 to get an appeal for a new vehicle under way.

The Royal Rover was set up in 1994 when the hospital got its first mini-bus and volunteer drivers kept it running around the site.

The service is now on its second mini-bus, which is nine years old and ready to replace.

Volunteers drive it from 9am-5pm on weekdays, and turn up in all weathers to make sure the service is always available.

They pick up outpatients, visitors and staff and ferry them around the sprawling hospital site to their destination.

And they always have a cheerful word to help keep stress at bay for anxious patients and visitors.

The mini-bus carries around 25,000 passengers each year, but is falling victim to age and is increasingly taken off the road for repairs.

Chris Mylott, voluntary services manager, said: “I can’t thank the League of Friends enough.

“I know they give freely to other departments and wards for the purchase of patient comforts, but this is the first time I have requested help from them and they immediately agreed this very generous donation of £5,000.”

Joan Tomlinson, chairman of the League of Friends, said: “I know what a good service this is because I have used it, and I feel it would be a great shame to see it disappear.

“It means outpatients don’t have the trauma of finding where their appointment is, as the bus picks them up and takes them there.

“The Christie cancer centre opens on the site this month and there will be even more passengers to convey.

“This is the just the type of service we enjoy supporting as we know it is of great benefit to the patients.”

Anyone who wants to make a donation should send a cheque payable to The Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust with a note saying it is for the Royal Rover Endowment Fund.