Benalla Health has paid tribute to its volunteers during its annual thank you morning tea.

Acting CEO Andrew Nitschke said the event was a chance for the health service to say thanks for the outstanding work which volunteers did.

“Although COVID has restricted much of the work our volunteers have been able to do in the health service, we know they are eager to return to their roles again and to work with us on providing valuable services to our community,” he said.

“Volunteers are so vital to every health service, performing a number of roles and working across many departments and our staff and community has greatly missed the presence of our volunteers at Benalla Health.”

The morning tea was held at the Ray Sweeney Community Health building on Tuesday 18 May from 10am to noon.

During the event, certificates were presented to the volunteers.

Mr Nitschke said Benalla Health currently has 21 active volunteers, the youngest of which is 16 and the eldest being 81.

“Our longest serving volunteer has been with us for 14 years,” he said.

“Prior to the impact of COVID, volunteers at Benalla Health contributed 684.55 hours of service over the first two months of 2020.

“It has been great to get our volunteers back on site recently, where they have been updating their mandatory training for their return and we will be looking at engaging them in non-client facing roles to begin with, which we are hopefull will happen soon.”