Gemma Smith, Ellie Copp and Cara Addey with the gifts
Being in hospital over Christmas isn’t all that bad… especially if you are treated to lovely presents.
A ward at Blackpool Victoria Hospital is pulling out all the stops to make Christmas a special time for patients and families having to spend their special days in hospital.
Gemma Smith, a ward manager at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, said: “We wanted to do something special for our caring for the older person wards as we feel they can get forgotten about.
“Many Christmas donations and gifts tend to go to the Children in hospital and I’d hate for more elderly people to get very little if they are in hospital so we decided to set up a stocking appeal on some wards.
“We were delighted to receive donations from local businesses which we put towards our presents and we have made stockings full of toiletries, puzzle books, chocolates and reading books.
“The staff from Ward 26 came in on their own time to wrap up presents and get everything ready for Christmas morning and this shows how much our staff care about looking after our patients.
“Our wards are expected to be full on Christmas Day so we know all our patients will have lovely gifts to open with their relatives which makes such a difference to the experience they will have during the festive period.
“We know the last place our patients want to be over Christmas is in hospital but what we can do is to make their experience the best it can be by just adding some Christmas joy.”