We’ve held special festive marketplaces to support our staff over the Christmas period. They were held at both Queen’s and King George hospitals in the week before Christmas.

Donations were made by members of staff, AB Clearances and the charity S.M.I.L.E London and Essex. Staff take as much as they need and the only cost for attending is a £3 donation, which goes to the charity to help them support us and give back to the community. Across both marketplaces, £350 was raised.

For the first time, we introduced festive boxes, which included brand-new toys, snacks, and winter clothing such as gloves and socks, to help colleagues struggling to afford gifts and other items this Christmas.

More than 80 staff members applied for festive boxes this year. And over 150 staff members walked through our doors and left with an item.

Duane Owen, a phlebotomist at Queen’s Hospital, said:  

I applied for a holiday support box as I've been experiencing some difficulties lately. It's been a tough few months. I applied to bring a little bit of joy to my children, and not only did they do that, the boxes also contained useful items such as shower gel and other essentials that have helped.  I am truly grateful to the Trust and to S.M.I.L.E. There's no shame in needing help sometimes.

Charleen Elton, Staff Experience Manager, said:

I am so proud of our marketplaces and seeing staff smile when they take what they need during these challenging times. The funds raised will benefit our local charity, S.M.I.L.E, which gives back to the community. The Christmas boxes were a new addition this year and it makes me pleased that we are supporting so many of our staff and their families.

Since we launched our marketplaces back in August 2022, we have held more than 10, including a ‘back to school’ theme to allow staff to get school uniforms and other items to help their families.

We’re bringing festive cheer to patients who are in our hospitals over the Christmas period. Younger patients and visitors were treated to a surprise visit from Santa, Buddy the Elf and Elsa from Frozen.

The magical trio visited Tropical Lagoon children’s ward, our Children’s Emergency Department and the Children’s and Young People’s Assessment Unit at Queen’s Hospital on Monday 23 December.

John Junnix from Let’s Party, a company providing children's party packages, organised a visit after his daughter was cared for at our hospital. He came to visit alongside Ricknroll Entertainment Mascots, who handed out toys and gifts.

Lia and Petru, from Chadwell Heath, came into hospital dressed up in Santa outfits- but they didn’t expect to see him here. They were handed gifts from Santa and had their photo taken with him.

During the festive period, we also make sure our adult inpatients feel the holiday spirit, delivering a gift bag of presents on Christmas Day. 

A whole team of volunteers on behalf of the King George and Queen’s Hospital Charity spend the run-up to Christmas packing 1,160 presents for our patients.

The gift bags include a charity puzzle book full of crosswords and wordsearches, alongside toiletries and a bar of chocolate. There are also teddy bears for those on our maternity wards.

Ward Clerk Bygrace Otudeko, who collected Christmas presents ready to give to patients on the Medical Assessment Unit at King George Hospital, said:

What the charity is doing is incredible. It’s great that we can make Christmas special for patients in hospital. Some patients do not have loved ones, so at least they know that they have loved ones in hospital who want to make a positive difference to their Christmas.

With the end of the year approaching, it’s an opportunity to reflect on the progress we have made in 2024.

It was an incredibly busy year for our A&Es with 332,056 people attending for treatment. Five of our six busiest months have been this year.

As we strived to tackle our waiting lists, we carried out 825,198 outpatient appointments and undertook 260,098 blood tests, 89,686 CT scans and 54,509 MRI scans. Our capacity has been enhanced by the opening of our state-of-the-art Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) at Barking Community Hospital which will deliver an extra 50,000 scans every year, and the recently opened CDC at St George’s Health and Wellbeing Hub which will carry out 38,000 additional scans and tests a year.

Waiting lists will be further reduced thanks to the opening of our Women’s Health Hub in Ilford in November. The waiting list for women’s health related care is our biggest and many are waiting too long to get the care they need.

Our Elective Surgical Hub at King George Hospital performed 9,312 surgeries. Thanks to a £14m extension we are able to provide 100 additional operations every week for patients across north east London. At the official opening in May, Wes Streeting, Health Secretary and MP for Ilford North, described what was going on at our Trust as “genuinely nationally leading”.

And we’ve welcomed 7,015 babies into the world this year at Queen’s Hospital.

None of this could have been achieved without the hard work of our staff and our volunteers, who we were able to thank with a series of events in July and August including a family fun day and a special lunch.

As we move into 2025, one of the most significant things we will be doing is introducing an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) that will be transformative for our staff and hugely beneficial for our patients.

We will also build on this year’s successes and continue to deliver care we’re proud of and our patients are happy with.

Identical twin brothers Callum and Connor (above) kicked off our festive deliveries, being born just before 3am on Christmas Eve morning.

The twins are extra special to their parents Katie Pegg, 33, and Chris Smith, 35, as neither have twins in their families, so they were completely unexpected.

Katie, of Rainham, said:

When we found out we were having twins at the 12-week scan it was a massive shock. We decided then to find out the sex when we could so we could be as prepared as possible.

The boys were due on 19 January, but twins are born at around 36 weeks so we knew I’d be having them early, but we expected to have them home for Christmas! I went in to be induced the weekend before (21 December) thinking we’d be home in a few days, but they took their sweet time. They must have decided they wanted to be almost Christmas babies and waited until the day before.

One of Katie’s big worries as she was in labour just before midnight on Christmas Eve was that she might end up having one twin on December 23 and one on December 24 – luckily both boys waited to arrive on the same day.

The twins are the first babies for Katie and Chris, while she is also mum to two older children.

Katie, a practice development nurse in our A&E at Queen’s Hospital, added:

It’s really precious to have the twins right on top of Christmas, the festive magic just makes it feel that bit more special. It made it a lot more exciting for my other two children too as Father Christmas brought them two baby brothers!

We came home on 27 December and opened presents. We haven’t had a Christmas dinner this year. Maybe in the new year we’ll have a delayed celebration and people can start coming to see them.

Both boys weighed around 6lb.

Baby Ruhanshi (above) may have been due on Christmas Eve, but she instead became one of our first Christmas Day babies of 2024, born at 12.45am.

She’s the first baby for parents Charu Kamboj, 28, and Himanshu Himanshu, 23, making her Christmas Day arrival very special for them.

Himanshu, of Collier Row, said:

We came in on 23 December for my wife to be induced, and then she needed a c-section.

It was very exciting when the baby was coming as she’s our first. We don’t celebrate Christmas but her coming on Christmas Day was very lucky for us and our family is very happy. We’re home now and our family and friends were there to welcome us. My wife is well and happy to be home. The baby is very calm and doesn’t cry too much, she feeds and sleeps, feeds and sleeps.

The family came home with baby Ruhanshi, who weighed just over 8lb, on Sunday 29 December.

She was one of 13 babies born on Christmas Day at Queen’s Hospital.