WHAT WE DO...
The League of Friends Musgrove Park Hospital is one of the oldest local charities. It was formed by the Rotary Club of Taunton in 1959 with the two main aims of:
- Promoting Voluntary Service in the hospital and
- Raising Funds to provide better equipment and facilities at Musgrove, over and above what the NHS could afford to provide.
It is still the case today that we wish to provide the best possible equipment for our local hospital, which is now a very well regarded Foundation Trust Hospital. We are proud of the fact that the charity is run ENTIRELY by volunteers – we have no paid officials.
Over the past 60 years we have helped provide many pieces of essential equipment, benefitting most hospital departments, from comparatively small items like wheelchairs and syringe drivers to funding for some major building and refurbishment works.
In 2024 the League of Friends paid for a surgical robot at the hospital costing £1.5 million. It was the single biggest donation in the history of the League and it now allows robotic surgery to take place at the hospital in a range of medical disciplines.
We also helped fund a specialist operating table to support the robot.
Other major projects in recent years have included:
Specialist Electric Beds: £294,000
Bracken Ward and birthing pool: £300,00
Contribution towards a third MRI Scanner: £100,000
Interventional X Ray Machine : £641,000
350 Infusion Pumps : £131,250
In addition to these large amounts, we accept numerous small bids, spread throughout the hospital, ranging from items of furniture to dementia friendly games for use on the wards.
Thank you so much for your help with these projects – we couldn’t have done it without you!
SHOP & TROLLEY SERVICE
We have a shop in the Duchess Building, which is run by a management team, supported by around 100 enthusiastic volunteers.
The shop – selling everything from coffee and sandwiches to sweets, newspapers and magazines and toiletries – is open from 8.15am to 6.30pm Mondays to Fridays and 11am to 4pm on Saturdays.
Currently our trolley service around the wards is suspended due to a shortage of volunteers but we do hope to resume it in the future.
If you would like to make some new friends and spend a worthwhile few hours each week helping us, why not ring and find out more or read our volunteering page. You would work with a buddy and you need only commit to a few hours each week. If you are interested in helping us in this way please contact Shop Manager Tina Foster or Deputy Manager Julia Forse on 01823 342394 or email tina.foster@somersetft.nhs.uk
The forerunner of the trolley service?
A library for the wounded soldiers when Musgrove Park was first built and run by the American army during the war.
The shop in the Old Building started out after the war as a cafe run by volunteers of the League of Friends.
One lady told us, “My husband had been posted down here during the war. After the war it seemed the obvious thing to do, to volunteer for Musgrove – it was the main thing in the area and I thought it would be a good way of meeting people and making new friends. So my friend and I started out working in the League of Friends cafe”.
THE BUNGALOW
Bastable Lodge is a bungalow built by the League of Friends. Family members of acute patients can stay there so that they are right on the hospital complex in times of crisis. Access is via the ward sister of the department treating the patient.
This much-used facility is free of charge, although it is hoped that visitors will give a donation towards the upkeep. There are five comfortable bedrooms and a big open-plan kitchen/living room.
Read more about Bastable Lodge HERE »
NEWS...
