Christmas Decorations Competition at Shropshire’s acute hospitals

24 December 2019

Staff at Shropshire’s acute hospitals got into the Christmas spirit by decking out wards and departments with innovative and colourful decorations.

Christmas trees and other decorations have helped to brighten up the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) and the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford for the festive period.

Many of the decorations were judged yesterday (Monday 23 December) as part of an annual Christmas competition run by The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs RSH and PRH.

Almost 20 wards and departments across both hospitals entered the competition, which was judged by Julia Clarke, Director of Corporate Services; Bev Tabernacle-Pennington, Director of Strategy and Transformation, and Kirsty Walker, Chief Communications Officer.

• The winner at PRH was the Postnatal Suite, with the Health Library and Ward 4 Trauma and Orthopaedics both highly commended.
• The winner at RSH was the Plaster Room, with the Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU) and the Frailty Team both highly commended.

The SaTH Charity generously supported the competition by sponsoring cash prizes of £100 for the winners and £25 for those highly commended. The prize money is to be used for the teams to improve their working environment. Every team that entered was also presented with a box of chocolates.

Julia said: “Christmas is a difficult time to be in hospital as a patient and our staff go the extra mile to help make a stay in hospital as comfortable as possible. The efforts that our staff have made to brighten up wards and departments have been brilliant and really helps to make a difference.

“The judging panel was really impressed with the standard of entries. We saw all kinds of amazing contributions, from Christmas trees with stars on top made from expired gloves to fireplaces made from cardboard boxes, decorated with stockings and candles made from plaster.

“This is an annual competition and once again our talented people have pulled out all the stops. Thank you to everyone who took part. Finally, I’d like to wish all of our patients, staff, partner organisations and the rest of the communities we serve, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.”