‘Santa’s Little Helpers’ spread festive cheer at Northumbria
Older people at Wansbeck General Hospital got a special surprise from ‘Santa’s Little Helpers’ this week as four young trainees from the ‘National Elf Service’ stopped by to deliver Christmas gifts.
As part of Northumbria Healthcare’s Christmas programme, the trust has made its very own Christmas video to spread festive cheer to patients and families and to celebrate the amazing work of NHS staff.
The four little helpers, aged from two to nine years old, are all children of staff who work at the trust and volunteered their time, after school, to support the fun ‘National Elf Service’ film.
The video was filmed in the impressive Christmas grotto and festive garden at Wansbeck General Hospital and shows ‘Santa’s Little Helpers’ loading up presents from Santa’s grotto and delivering them to patients on ‘care of older people’ wards.
Launched on Northumbria Healthcare’s social media channels today using #NHSXmas, the video has been made at no cost to the trust and aims to inspire goodwill and spread best wishes to all those in hospital or being cared for by the NHS this Christmas.
Matron at Wansbeck General Hospital, Maureen Davidson said: “It was fantastic to have Santa’s Little Helpers here at Wansbeck and visiting some of our most vulnerable patients who were genuinely quite moved to receive such a lovely Christmas surprise.
“There are many people who will need our care and support over the festive season and the video sends out a lovely message to everyone in society to call on those who may need help and support his winter.
“We have a fantastic Christmas display here at Wansbeck and it is lovely to have the trust film the video here with the children. We hope it makes everyone smile and am sure will spread lots of Christmas cheer to all NHS staff across the country.”
Annie Laverty, director of patient experience at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The video captures everything that is magical about Christmas and everything that is wonderful about our NHS. There are thousands of older people who will need help from the NHS this Christmas and thousands of NHS staff working hard to make sure we deliver high quality patient care.
“Many of us will have loved ones, grandmothers and grandfathers, in hospital this Christmas and we really hope people enjoy watching our video and the warm sentiment of children visiting the older generation.”