Making Christmas Special at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust | Latest news

This year has been like no other due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite this, our staff, charity and the public are working together to ensure that our patients have a special Christmas.

Thanks to Nottingham Hospitals Charity,  our staff have been able to apply for funding to provide presents for patients in hospital on Christmas day.

The Charity is also running its Grant a Wish campaign which provides gifts for young patients at Nottingham Children’s Hospital over the Christmas period.

While our visiting restrictions remain in place to keep everyone safe and to reduce the spread of Covid-19, we are encouraging people to take advantage of our virtual visiting options.

This includes things such as phone calls, FaceTime and getting support from our Spiritual and Pastoral Care team to keep in touch with someone who is in hospital.

So far nearly 500 people have used our Messages to Loved Ones service since it was set up earlier this year, which enables people to send in a letter, a message or photos to loved ones in hospital.

One lady was even able to send a picture of her baby scan to her grandmother who was in hospital.

Back in the kitchens, and our Estates Team are working hard to prepare more than 16,000 Christmas meals over three days for our patients – including Christmas dinner with all of the trimmings.

Does your loved one like music? If so, our Nottingham Hospitals Radio team are putting on a special Christmas programme and you can request a song or a shout out here.                                                       

Alongside this, some wards will be putting on their own activities such as hosting virtual carols, Christmas music sessions, virtual quizzes and Christmas reminiscing sessions for our older patients.

Thanks to WiFi Spark our patients will be able to access a range of free media services such as the radio, play Sudoku and have access to NHS apps.

Nottingham-based Wellspring Music will also be holding various virtual performances for our patients. This has been funded by Nottingham Hospitals Charity.

Schools in our community have been busy drawing Christmas pictures for us and some of them are displayed in the waiting room of the Emergency Department.  As well as this, Hucknall National Primary School has been sending in Christmas pictures to brighten up our Barclay Ward at City Hospital.

Sarah Moppett, Acting Chief Nurse, at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, said:

“It is really important to us that each patient has the best possible Christmas while with us in hospital and this is just a snapshot of the activities that our teams, the public and our charity, will be doing over the festive period.

"We are really encouraging people to take advantage of our popular virtual visiting options as a way of keeping in touch with your loved ones and to let them know that you are thinking of them.

"We know this year has been really difficult for us all and we would like to say thank you to the public for continuing to follow our visiting restrictions and social distancing measures to help keep everyone safe.

“If you have a question about visiting or any questions about the festive period please call the ward before hand – please do not turn up to the hospital as we may not be able to facilitate your request.”

 Barbara Cathcart, Chief Executive of Nottingham Hospitals Charity, said: “We are proud to be able to help bring a smile to the faces of patients at Nottingham’s hospitals this Christmastime. We know it won’t be a ‘normal’ Christmas for many, but we hope we can make hospital stays a little brighter for those who find themselves on our wards during the festive period.

 “As well as having contributed to patient gifts in this, and prior years, we have funded Boredom Buster activity packs which help give patients something fun and creative to do during their time in hospital. This can be particularly helpful for older patients, as it helps keep their minds active and gives them something to focus on.

“We also provide treats for staff who are working on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. We’d like to thank the wonderful community of Nottingham and beyond for supporting their NHS this year through donations to the Charity, enabling us to provide the funding for special schemes like this.”

To find out more about our visiting restrictions please visit our website: https://www.nuh.nhs.uk/visiting-arrangements-during-covid-19