KEY POINTS:
A squad of St John volunteers will begin patrolling Middlemore Hospital's emergency department waiting room from today.
They will talk to patients and their relatives to ensure their needs are being met.
About 240 patients go through the department daily - almost 90,000 each year.
The volunteers, called Friends of the Emergency Department, are expected to help more than 70,000 patients, St John Friends manager Michael Bancroft said.
The volunteers establish a rapport with the patients and their relatives, improving the "emergency department experiencefor them at a traumatic time".
The same service is already carried out at 17 New Zealand hospitals, including North Shore and Waitakere, after beginning six years ago at Auckland City Hospital.
There are about 600 volunteers nationwide, with 26 new volunteers already trained to cover the three four-hour daily shifts at Middlemore, said St John northern communications manager Linda Donaldson.
New volunteers are always being sought and those interested can contact St John.
