Coronavirus guidance

We have had a huge amount of support and offers of various different products and services during the pandemic and are extremely grateful to everyone for their generosity.

If you have an offer of support, please read the below to see who to contact.

Volunteers urgently required - can you help us?

University Hospitals Dorset urgently require volunteers to help at our hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic to help in Poole and Bournemouth Hospitals.

As you may be aware, our hospitals are busier than ever and we are looking for a number of people who are able to give up their time for a few hours a week to help out in a mix of various roles:

Meet and Greet Volunteers – Stationed at the entrances to the hospitals these volunteers greet visitors and staff, ensuring that everybody sanitises their hands and is wearing a mask.

Vaccination Support Volunteers – We are currently very busy vaccinating staff in our hospitals and the community against COVID-19, these volunteers support the vaccine clinics by helping with queue control and social distancing, directing to the correct areas and wiping down and sanitising the waiting areas.

Safety Guardian – A brand new role designed to take the pressure of staff in wards and clinical areas by keeping a watchful eye on the hospital corridors, supporting sanitisation of high touch areas and that any risks or faulty equipment are being swiftly reported.

Volunteers will be required to help for shifts 0800-1100, 1100-1400,1400-1700. You will be allocated to one of the roles above by the voluntary services staff.

None of these roles will require going into any wards or clinical areas or having direct patient contact. There will be patients with COVID-19 in our hospital wards.

You will need to have a score of 4 or less on this risk assessment to volunteer in our hospital during the pandemic. Please do not apply at this time if you score higher than 4. 

Training will be given and you can use your experience to obtain the National Volunteer Certificate details found https://volunteerlearning.community/guiding-volunteers/

If you are interested please email your details to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

PPE and business support offers?

Offers of PPE and business support are now being coordinated by a central team and are no longer being managed by individual trusts. The NHS has recently released guidance which requires NHS organisations to obtain PPE through the designated route of NHS Supply Chain to ensure that it meets the required specification and is quality assured. However, the Cabinet Office has set up a specific PPE cell and is very keen to receive such offers from businesses and has established the ‘Offer coronavirus support from your business’ website where further details can be found.

Donations of food or gifts for staff

The numbers of physical gifts like hand cream and soaps, chocolates and meals donated for staff has been absolutely amazing. We are working hard on distributing these evenly and fairly among the teams. If you have any donations, please email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Staff discounts

If you are offering a discount to NHS staff during the covid crisis then please send the details to email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

We will then add this information to the intranet pages. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your generous offer of assistance/donation of products to the Trust in these unprecedented and challenging times.