FRIENDS of Frome Hospital has launched its new website and is hoping to engage the community ahead of the (AGM) this month.
It is hoped that the new website will help the group connect with the public and encourage support for health services in the town. The group’s AGM will be held at Frome Community Hospital from 7.30pm on Thursday 19th November.
Peter Smith, chairman of Friends of Frome Hospital said, “Until now the friends had no effective method of highlighting all the good things that were being initiated, nor was there an opportunity to get the essential feedback on what else we could be offering.
“We hope the community will use the site, and will also attend the AGM; a few new faces with new ideas would be invaluable. We have the best medical facilities in the region operating from the Frome Health Park, so support the friends if you can.”
Friends of Frome Hospital, which dates back to the old Victoria Hospital in Park Road, took the lead role in championing the building of a new community hospital. With the help of the community, it also raised hundreds of thousands of pounds to provide much of the additional furniture and equipment for patients and staff, not provided by the NHS, when the new facility opened in 2008.
Since then, the Friends have broadened their remit, which has freed them from being perceived as simply as fundraisers, to a much more outgoing team, supporting a number of secondary medical services offered at the Health Park and in and around the town.
Recent initiatives have supported carers’ courses for Alzheimer’s, Singing for the Brain dementia programme, Life Education Wessex, health education in schools, the Leg Club, as well as help for Positive Action on Cancer, Wessex Counselling and Harry’s Hydro. Set up costs for the Minor Operations Theatre in the Frome Medical Practice have also been funded.
Over the past 12 months the Friends have installed 20 publicly available defibrillators (PAD) across Frome and villages, making Frome the first community in the country to establish a network of ‘readily available’ life-saving equipment to use in cardiac arrest situations.
To find out more about the group, visit www.friendsoffromehospital.org.uk