Programmes

Six small enterprises, one steady purpose.

The Friends’ work is organised into six named programmes. Two of them — the shop and the café — are trading enterprises that fund the rest. Two are direct-care programmes — the trolley and the bedside comforts. One is the Equipment Appeal that buys monitors, scanners and beds. And one is the small, quiet welfare programme for ward staff that we began in the winter of 2020.

A neatly laid-out table at the Friends’ office in Stoke-Sub-Hamdon — six manilla folders, each labelled with a programme name in serif type, a cup of tea and a fountain pen.
01 · Fundraising

The Equipment Appeal

The headline appeal of the Friends. Each summer we agree a list of clinical equipment with the medical director, the matron and the ward sisters. The list is published, fundraised against, and reconciled at year end with every receipt filed against every line. The 2025/26 list closed in March 2026 with a second portable ultrasound for the Surgical Assessment Unit at £92,140 raised against an £89,000 target.

Equipment funded under this programme is named in our annual report and labelled, physically, with a small cream-and-gold paper tag for at least its first year on the ward. We do not fund consumables, drugs or staff salaries.

Geography · Yeovil District Hospital Beneficiaries · Inpatients and outpatients Supported by · Somerset Community Foundation
A radiographer at Yeovil District Hospital adjusting a portable ultrasound trolley funded by the Friends, with a Friends-branded paper label still tied to the handle reading ‘THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDS OF THE YEOVIL HOSPITALS’.
02 · On the ward

Bedside Comforts

Slippers in the locker when admission was sudden. A radio on the tray table when the television is too much. A bag for the valuables that came in the ambulance. A toothbrush. A clean shirt. A box of biscuits for the ward staff at the end of a difficult night. This is what the Comforts programme funds, from the trolley’s morning float and the small surplus of the shop.

Comforts are quietly the most-thanked part of our work in the patient cards we receive, and the cheapest. The annual outlay is around £18,400.

Geography · All adult inpatient wards Beneficiaries · Long-stay patients Supported by · Friends’ trolley float
A wicker basket of bedside comforts on a hospital trolley — radio, slippers, lavender bag, a copy of the Western Gazette, the Friends’ cream-and-gold paper label tied to the handle reading ‘THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDS OF THE YEOVIL HOSPITALS’.
03 · Trading

The Friends’ Café

Our café on Level 2 of Yeovil District Hospital has run continuously, except for the pandemic months, since 2003. It is staffed by paid kitchen managers and a rota of fourteen front-of-house volunteers. It is open every day from 09.00 to 16.30 except Christmas Day. The café’s annual surplus is the single largest source of grants to the wards — £312,000 in the last financial year.

The kitchen is a small one and we are proud of what comes out of it: scones baked each morning, soup made fresh, fair-trade coffee. The chocolate cake recipe is unpublished but available, in person, to volunteers on request.

Hours · 09.00–16.30 daily Location · Level 2, Yeovil District Hospital Run by · The Friends’ trading subsidiary
The Friends’ Café on Level 2 of Yeovil District Hospital — late afternoon light, two volunteers in cream aprons, a hand-lettered chalkboard menu with the Friends’ cream-and-gold logo, the words ‘THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDS OF THE YEOVIL HOSPITALS’ routed in serif lettering on a wooden sign above the counter.
04 · Trading

The Hospital Shop

The Friends’ shop on the main concourse has been on the present site since 1991. It stocks newspapers, magazines, toiletries, snacks, soft drinks, greeting cards, condolences cards, slippers, phone chargers, gifts, the small flower arrangements made each week by the women’s institute in Martock, and a small selection of paperbacks. It is open every day from 07.30 to 19.00 except Christmas Day, run by a paid manager and a rota of fourteen volunteers.

The shop’s annual surplus, after staff costs and stock, was £297,170 in the last financial year. The shop is also the most-requested first volunteering placement — there is a waiting list.

Hours · 07.30–19.00 daily Location · Main concourse, Yeovil District Hospital Manager · Tracey Knapp (paid)
The Friends’ shop counter in Yeovil District Hospital’s main concourse — a row of birthday cards, a brass till bell, a volunteer in a cream tabard with the words ‘THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDS OF THE YEOVIL HOSPITALS’ embroidered across the back.
05 · On the ward

The Trolley Service

The trolley is the Friends’ oldest programme, running every weekday and most weekend afternoons since 1971. Two volunteers wheel it around the adult inpatient wards selling papers, sweets, toiletries, soft drinks, and the small things people forget when they were admitted in a hurry. The trolley also carries a small Comforts float for the items we give away for free.

We do not visit the children’s wards or the emergency department with the trolley — they have their own play and refreshment provision, to which we contribute equipment via the Equipment Appeal.

Hours · 09.30–15.30 weekdays Wards · All adult inpatient wards Co-ordinator · Annette Parker (trustee)
The morning trolley round on a Yeovil District Hospital ward — papers stacked at one end, a thermos, a Friends’ cream-and-gold sign on the side reading ‘THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDS OF THE YEOVIL HOSPITALS’ in serif type.
06 · For the staff

The Staff Haven

Begun in November 2020 after a conversation with the matron about what the wards were not asking for but needed, the Staff Haven funds small welfare improvements for ward staff: a kettle that works, a comfortable chair that is not in a corridor, a kitchenette refit, a quiet room with a door. We have funded twelve haven projects across nine wards since 2020.

Each project is requested by a ward sister and signed off by the matron and the chair of trustees. The programme is funded jointly from the Equipment Appeal and a small ring-fenced legacy from a donor in Sherborne who left the Friends £18,500 in 2019 for “the staff who looked after my husband”.

Geography · Twelve wards to date Beneficiaries · Ward staff Annual budget · £14,000
A small staff welfare room at Yeovil District Hospital with a kettle, a low armchair, a window, and a framed certificate on the wall reading ‘Funded by THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDS OF THE YEOVIL HOSPITALS, 2024’.
Support a programme

Donations may be unrestricted, or tied to one of the six programmes above.

If you would like to give to a specific programme, please tell us in the ‘notes’ field on the donation page, or write to the Honorary Treasurer.

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