Meet our volunteer - Marianne

Marianne joined us earlier this year, but has become invaluable hosting our public Information Line service. We asked her to share her experience.

Marianne's View

"I’ve been working as a Healthwatch volunteer since February this year, looking after the information answering phone and email enquiries that come into the office.

This is a really interesting role as no query is the same and often a fair bit of research is needed to come up with an answer or a way forward. At the same time, it’s a way of identifying developing healthcare trends that Healthwatch can investigate further. One example is finding out that some people are having new issues accessing aspects of care from GP’s that were previously not a problem.

I have worked for over 40 years in the NHS and Australian health system, retiring last year (and moving to Hove all at the same time!). Having been a midwife for 25 years. I still feel I have lots to offer and volunteering for Healthwatch is perfect for me to use my communication skills in a way that other volunteer roles could not offer.

Marianne Stone
Information Line Volunteer
April 2020