New website for hospital Friends

Members were told at the charity’s annual meeting of the building of a league website.

The public can now access full information about the league’s work, its history and that of the hospital itself by logging on to www.bexhillhospitalfriends.org.uk

The website includes illustrated news coverage of committee decisions about the purchase of medical equipment, photo-calls marking the delivery of new equipment and events such as the annual Hospital Garden Party and enables the public to access the League’s newsletters.

Crucially, the website also contains membership and donations and legacy pages. Website builder Chris Ashford’s valued contribution to the membership drive has been marked by his election to the league’s general committee, a move designed to make his voluntary role as webmaster simpler.

In common with many town organisations, league membership has contracted over the years. Two decades ago it was nudging 2,000. Now it is a little over 800.

The league’s autumn newsletter carried a “recruit a friend” appeal to all existing members.

Under an initiative by committee member Audrey Kerr, league volunteers run refreshments and Christmas card sales stalls at the autumn ‘flu clinics in local GP surgeries as a means of reaching out to the public.

A continuing flow of generous legacies enables the league to fund the purchase of state-of-the-art new medical equipment for Bexhill Hospital and for the Conquest Hospital at Hastings, where Bexhillians form a high proportion of the patients receiving treatment.

Last year, league gifts totalled £488,500.