Hu Ya-hsi, head of Voluntary Services at National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH). (Chuang Kung-ju)

If you reckon modern society is cold, unfeeling, and chaotic, you should take some time out to take a look around National Taiwan University Hospital. There you'll find a group of people who have taken it upon themselves to help out the patients there, spreading a feeling of warmth and compassion throughout the hospital.

If you come down with something minor, like a cold, then you can head over to your local clinic and get a check-up. If you fall seriously ill, though, you have to go to a hospital for examination and treatment. However, a lot of people are afraid to go to the hospital when they're sick, because the whole process is so daunting. All that hassle, from registration, and filling out all those forms, to trying to find the examination room, waiting for the doctor, and picking up prescriptions... a lot of people just don't want to have to deal with it. So the hospitals have specially recruited teams of volunteer workers to help patients through everything. These volunteers don't fear catching something from the patients, nor does the difficult and tiring nature of the work concern them. What drives them to do this kind of service? What sort of work do they actually do? And what's it like working with the sick? Perhaps these and other questions can be cleared up through the story of Hu Ya-hsi, head of Voluntary Services at National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH).

"Working with the sick has helped me understand the value of life, and the importance of looking after your health and of seizing the moment," says Hu of her ten years' experience at NTUH. "Doing this kind of work, helping others, has actually helped me too: it's given my life new meaning."

Hu Ya-hsi joined NTUH Voluntary Services in October 1993, and since then she's helped out at the lobby information desk and in the cancer ward, amongst others. Now she's head of the volunteer team. Aside from continuing to help out at the cancer ward every Monday morning, her time is now devoted to administration and co-ordination, and training and guiding newcomers.

National Taiwan University Hospital has a long history. It is Taiwan's biggest center for medical training; outpatient numbers average 8000-9000 a day, and inpatients number a little over 2000. Because of the numbers of patients involved, the bulk of the volunteer work involves making sure everything runs smoothly between the medical staff and the patients. Before last year's SARS epidemic, NTUH had over 1000 volunteers; now their numbers are down to five or six hundred, split into shifts according to when the individual volunteers are available and what they're willing to do.

Each day, says Hu, the volunteers are assigned to various areas to help patients or family members. Every service of the hospital is covered by the volunteers, from people working as assistants at the main entrance right on through. All of the volunteers are required to have thorough first aid training, including CPR, so that they're prepared for any emergency. And they especially need to be au fait with the variety of gadgets set up in the hospital's "convenience stations," so that they can help patients with registration, payment, updating their National Health Insurance cards, and inquiries about inpatient services. That assistance saves patients from having to spend extra time queuing up at counters for the same services.