Most people shudder at the thought of working on Christmas Day. Not me. I’ve worked as a hospital doctor since 2000 and, most years, come 25 December, I’ll be doing the ward round. As a junior doctor, I didn’t have much choice about doing the Christmas Day shift. But since becoming a consultant, I have usually volunteered for Christmas, and am used to working when others are tucking into their turkey and opening their presents.
How lonely must those souls be to regard staying on the wards as festive?
I recall being bad tempered one early start, knowing I was missing my two young kids’ excitement, but otherwise the pattern has been a joy. For all its failings, the NHS has a capacity for camaraderie. Staff are almost never competing for money or employment, and that, combined with sharing a worthwhile goal, is conducive to fellow feeling. We really are in it together, especially at Christmas.
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