One of our members, Teresa Cambell is a volunteer at Medway Hospital every Thursday. She assists with a library trolley service for patients that has made a comeback 25 years after the original service was last seen on the wards.
Reading offers a lot of therapeutic benefits that complement medical treatment, helps to reduce anxiety, and stimulates cognitive function. Books can also help patients maintain a sense of normalcy by sparking conversations with others, combat isolation, and support emotional healing. There really are lots of wellbeing benefits to reading which is why we decided to bring the service back after discovering the photo in our archives.”
Patients can borrow books for as long as they wish, with returns collected during the next trolley visit. If a patient is discharged mid-read, they are welcome to take the book home.
To help grow its book collection the Library is appealing for donations of popular adult fiction, biographies or children’s picture books that have been published in the last five years and are in good condition. Medway and Maidstone Soroptimists responded by donating books at their September meeting. In addition, clubs across the Region also brought books to the Regional AGM.
The hospital posted this message on their Facebook page:-
‘A huge thank you to Soroptimist International of Medway and Maidstone for their generous donation of over 100 books to our patient library trolley service which has returned to our inpatient wards after 25 years.
And that is not all. The group has kindly pledged to donate more books following its regional Annual General Meeting this Saturday.’