Christmas means business as usual for the patients and staff of Great Ormond Street Hospital
200 patients will be at GOSH on Christmas Day this year, along with hundreds of staff
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Last year one of Melissa Strickland’s young patients was scared Santa Claus didn’t know he was staying at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and wouldn’t be able to find him on Christmas Day. Only the most seriously ill patients are kept in over Christmas, but this little boy didn’t want to tell his parents about his fears. Like many sick children at GOSH he did not want to worry them.
“It’s not uncommon,” said Melissa, 48, the ward sister in charge of 50 nurses on Koala Ward. “Children often hide fear or pain. You should have seen his smile when Father Christmas did come with his presents though.”
Koala Ward is dedicated to neurology and craniofacial patients and acts as an emergency ward for brain injuries, such as those caused in car crashes. This week it has been transformed as staff and patients worked on decorations and prepared stockings for the children who will be in hospital this Christmas.
“We can’t change that something awful has happened to one of our patients, but we can change that journey of how they handle it. I think we help families at lot with that at Christmas,” she said.
No family wants to spend Christmas in hospital, so as well as continuing to provide “business as usual” medical care, Melissa and her team of nurses and support staff make it their mission to make Christmas “as normal as possible” for Koala ward patients.
That has meant decorating a tree, putting up decorations and arranging special visits, including one on Wednesday by Minnie and Mickey Mouse (Father Christmas is due to make a special visit on Tuesday). There is no tinsel in sight though, as all decorations must be able to be thoroughly cleaned to meet strict infection control guidelines.
Melissa, who has worked at GOSH for 20 years, and her team have had to get “creative”. The result is a ward covered in Christmas messages on miniature stockings from GOSH supporters, sparkling hanging stars along the corridors and hand-made reindeer decorations in the playroom.
“Making the decorations is great for us as playworkers as it really keeps the children occupied,” said Sally Anne Pitt, 31, the lead play worker on the ward “We’ve been working on them for weeks. It’s good for the children to have a longer term project as some of them can be here for quite a long time.”
Work by Sally Anne and the 40 play workers across the hospital is funded by the GOSH charity and will be supported by The Independent’s Give to GOSH appeal. The charity also provides the patients’ stockings as well as treats for visiting siblings on Christmas Day, which for Sally Anne meant a mad dash last year for baby clothes when a newborn arrived on the ward on Christmas Eve. “We can’t pretend the kids are going to have their best Christmas here. It’s hard but we do our best to make it fun and help them get through it,” she said.
Despite a big push to let as many families as possible spend the holiday together, 200 patients will be at GOSH on Christmas Day this year, along with hundreds of staff. “Working here at Christmas makes me re-evaluate my life and I know this sounds corny but for me it’s quite healing working here,” said Melissa.
“We can go home after our shift and see our families, while children here might be arriving with newly diagnosed brain tumours, facing an uncertain future.”
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