Volunteers Week is an annual UK-wide celebration recognising the incredible selfless work of volunteers. In NHS Lothian we are incredibly proud of all our volunteers from the community, our estates and our hospitals.
Kosar Bibi started as a Volunteer Driver in November 2024 to support NHS Lothian’s Flow Centre with patient transport from hospital to home. In short, Kosar picks up patients from hospital discharge lounges across our sites and drives them directly home. While some journeys for Kosar may be short, such as travelling to Forth Valley, others may see Kosar drive all the way up to Inverness and other parts of the Highlands.
Since starting in her role, Kosar has safely transported home more than 120 patients, clocking up an incredible 21,000+ miles in the process.
Kosar explained: “I decided to become a volunteer driver after seeing first-hand the difficulties people have getting home from hospital due to grown children, carers etc. having other commitments. I love meeting such interesting people from all walks of life and all ages. I also get to see and hear how hard the NHS work to improve people’s lives. The best bit is reuniting the patient with their loved ones.”
Supporting the Flow Centre to help get patients home as quickly as possible also helps our hospitals frees up beds for new patients coming into the system. Additionally, Kosar provides a service when all other patient transport options have been exhausted, saving NHS Lothian the cost of having to use the last resort option of paying for external transport.
Ross Lamb, Voluntary Services Manager, describes Kosar as a friendly, empathetic, and committed person. Kosar averages several patient transfers per month and proceeds with her duties regardless of the weather (obviously taking weather warnings into account!).
Ross explains: “As Kosar’s Voluntary Services Manager, it’s always interesting to see all the places she transports patients to around Scotland each month, and it’s also rewarding to see the number of patients she gets home safe and sound to the comfort of their own surroundings.”
“When nominating Kosar for this award, I also worked out that over 35% of the patient transfers Kosar has completed have been round trips of 200 miles or more. This is quite simply an extraordinary effort from a volunteer and something that should quite rightly be celebrated and appreciated. The Voluntary Services Team and Flow Centre are extremely grateful for all Kosar’s kind support and outstanding commitment. We are very lucky to have her!”
Kosar has now also been shortlisted for the Voluntary Service Award at this year’s upcoming Celebrating Success Awards.
