A married couple who will be working in a hospital over Christmas say the festive shifts have a “special atmosphere”.
Anushka Saroop-Ramoutar and Deven Ramoutar, both emergency medicine registrars, will spend their third Christmas in a row covering night shifts in the emergency department at the Royal Free Hospital (RFH) in London.
Anushka said: “Everyone is in a festive mood and staff dress up in Christmas jumpers and tinsel.
“We get a lot of people coming in to deliver presents and food to us, which is lovely. Last year we had a group of children come round to the children’s emergency department to sing carols.
“In the morning we take a group shot of all the staff who are in – so there is a special atmosphere at Christmas.”
The couple will be starting work at 10pm on Christmas Day, and will be celebrating in the morning before going to the hospital.
They say they always volunteer to work over Christmas as their families live abroad and they do not have any children.
Deven, who is originally from Canada, said: “After our last Christmas shift ends we are going to Toronto for a break.
“Anushka’s family will be coming over from Trinidad to Toronto as well so it will be a big family gathering. I haven’t been back for two years so it will be amazing to see home again.
“The staff here (at the RFH) are amazing, the supervisors are very supportive and the patients are very appreciative of what we do.”