Remote Volunteering as New Normal amid Pandemic - Patient Concern Service

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, Hong Kong's Hospital Authority has suspended all hospital visits to protect patients' safety. To the long-stay patients, a hospital visit is a connection from which they feel valued. Losing touch with family and friends, they have to fight for their lives alone and suffer from fear, loneliness and tiredness.

Our “Patient Concern Service” tends to be more difficult during the pandemic. However, your generous support gives us the motivation to move on, developing a new way, virtual visits, to keep in touch with hospitalized patients. That helps to bring them love and care, filling the holes in their hearts.

Our volunteer, Pik-ha, cherishes every opportunity to meet with patients. "Seeing patients is not easy these days," she described. At the time of a virtual visit, she got reacquainted with a speech-impaired patient. Seeing his smiling eyes and facial expression, she already felt satisfied with the conversation. "Though barriers formed by masks and screens raise distance between us, we are still delighted with the chat. Some taciturn patients also call our names happily once seeing us," said Pik-ha.

Pik-ha gets well prepared for each virtual visit. She remembered that one time, she printed an image of a patient's idol deliberately and showed it to her during the visit. The patient immediately burst out laughing, filling happiness in Pik-ha's heart. Apart from virtual visits, Pik-ha also participates in video shooting and magic performance to help patients overcome loneliness in hospitals. The patients respond with gratitude and compliment to our volunteers' actions.

Please support us by providing diversified humanitarian services to the patients, and bringing them love and warmth to relieve their pains. You can continuously support our “Patient Concern Service” through One-off donation or join our monthly donation program and become “Friends of Red Cross” or increase your current monthly donation.