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Trust slammed for offering single teabag as ‘thank you’ treat

Video posted on social media website TikTok shows woman unwrapping an envelope from Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust to reveal gifted teabag

Video posted on social media website TikTok shows woman unwrapping an envelope from Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust to reveal gifted teabag

A hospital trust has been criticised by nurses after thanking staff for their hard work with a solitary tea bag.

A video posted on social media website TikTok shows a young woman unwrapping a branded envelope from Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust to reveal the gifted teabag inside.

Money better spent on staff and patient care, say nursing staff

She explained her father, who works at the trust, was rewarded the bag as a ‘treat’ to say thank you for all their hard work. Nurses and other NHS staff reacted with disbelief after the post went viral on TikTok and Twitter.

One nurse who replied to the video said: ‘On international nurses day they gave as “care packages” containing one tea bag and a pen. Cheers!’

Other nurses and NHS staff labelled it a waste of money that could be better spent on staff and patient care, as hospitals in England faced one of their worst months in July, with record numbers of patients waiting more than 12 hours to be admitted from the emergency department.

One NHS worker asked: ‘How much did it cost to individually wrap a teabag?

Nurse slates teabag gift as ‘ridiculous plan’

‘Who in their right minds got a committee together and presumably after group discussion decided a teabag was a great idea? Still... more substantive than claps and a pay restoration.’

While another nurse said: ‘Imagine the meeting where the executives thought this up...they likely had a nice catered lunch whilst they discussed this ridiculous plan.’

Another responded: ‘That’s a real kick in the tea bags… and won’t pay the electric bill. Wonder if the chief exec got a box of teabags or a nice bonus?’

Trust chief executive Matthew Hopkins said the trust had taken a number of measures over the course of the pandemic to say thank you to staff, including offering and extra paid day’s annual leave and providing free meals over the Christmas period.

Trust’s chief defends teabag gift and says it was done ‘with good intent’

‘Of course we are hugely grateful for the hard work done by all our staff caring for our communities and we are always seeking new ways to show appreciation and kindness to our teams,’ he said.

‘By way of an extra small but sincere thank you to our midwives and nurses for International Day of the Midwife and International Nurses’ Day, back in May, we sent each of them a certificate and a gift bag with a number of items in, including a branded tea bag, to encourage them to take a break.

‘We wanted to let them know how much we appreciate all the hard work they do and also further raise awareness of the important work our hospital charity is doing to support our staff wellbeing.

‘It’s a shame that one small act of kindness, done with good intent as part of one of the many ways we say “thank you” has been taken out of context in this way.’


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