Gifts for hospital nurses and others on ward St Mary’s Paddington

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My lovely godfather has been through a rough time and is currently in hospital at St Mary’s Paddington. He has been so well looked after by so many people including a stint on ICU that we really ant to be able to say thank you with something other than chocolates which staff may get lots of and not really want.
I have asked various nurses on the ward but they all say no thanks needed and not to worry but as a family we really would like to be able to say thank with something that would be welcomed.
So anyone with any suggestions ? All I have managed to think of so far are chocolates, biscuits and maybe nice teas and coffees for the staff room if such a thing exists.
thanks all,

We definitely appreciate nice coffee and biscuits etc for the staff cupboard. A letter to their senior management, laying out what was good about their work is also always appreciated and if you have names of staff they can use feedback for revalidation etc which is appreciated too. Anything really is appreciated although giving good service and care for patients is the job itself so I don’t expect to be rewarded for it, but always like a follow up card to let me know how the patient and their family are doing. Once I got a xmas card months later and that was fabulous.

Gifts are nice, but don’t have as much value as positive patient testimony!

If you could take the time to write a proper letter of thanks, it would be very much appreciated by ward staff. Especially so if you can find out all the names of the staff involved in his care and list them - this is very useful for staff who have to do regular revalidation, like nurses, or who are on training pathways, who can use it as evidence of providing good quality care.

The chief executive of Imperial NHS Trust (which covers St Mary’s) is Tim Orchard, and it would be nice for the ward staff if you could also send him a copy of your letter, if you write it.

And please do send the chocolates, or if you have a bit of spare cash, put together a nice hamper full of healthier snacks like nice fruit, decent cereal bars, nut bars, etc. Food is always welcome, and proper meal breaks are a thing of the past in a lot of roles.

If you really want to get them something then a hamper with nice juice, tea, coffee, biscuits, chocolates, hand creams will always go down well. But as PP say, a letter of recognition sent via PALs so it gains managements attention is the best :)

As an ex carer and ex nurse please please please can you give a basket of fresh fruit - chocs and biscuits are grim and cheap - we're just too polite to tell you sorry.

Nurses need to submit evidence for their revalidation every 3 years so cards/letters are fab. If you do a hamper can I suggest you do one for night shift as well as they often miss out!

Black pens and a letter to the chief executive, mentioning names. We can use it in our revalidation. And it means way more than chocolates.

Yes like others have said, specific positive thanks and praise is worth more than all the chocolates and gifts in the world really. And of course NHS staff are not allowed to accept more than token gifts which makes doing something meaningful hard. Imperial/ St Mary's is a big trust and has an active charity that I expect keeps the ward staff fairly well supplied with refreshments and so on although some extras never go down badly either, or you could make a donation to the charity directly to put to good use for projects like refurbishing staff areas? If you did want to give a token gift, perhaps some slightly different hot drink options is a nice idea, often standard tea and coffees are supplied in the break room but if you prefer herbals or earl grey or hot chocolate or cordial you're a bit stuffed and have to bring your own, which then of course gets used by others etc etc. Or nurses are always after nice hand cream (so much hand washing is murder on the skin) or pens, for some reason pens are like gold dust on most NHS wards so a pot of biros is a bit of a random gift but will probably see good use 😂

Thank you all.
Wonderful ideas and I had not considered letters but will definitely do this.

That’s not true. Biscuits and chocolate go down well, and can last a lot longer than fruit so can be shared with more of the staff than something fresh. Any gift is appreciated.

My midwife friend always says individually wrapped biscuits, flapjacks and cereal bars etc are most appreciated, fruit is good but must be the kind that doesn't need much preparation and single serve (not pineapple for instance). She reckons she lives on raw bars or more strictly the Aldi fake ones.