VIDEO: Patients at Northampton General Hospital drank one million cups of tea last year

Nurses at Northampton General Hospital have been telling the cameras of the countless ways they use the humble cup of tea to provide care.

The ‘Nice Cup of Tea’ video shows staff sharing how a cuppa is used as everything from link to the past for someone with dementia to an incentive for a labouring mum-to-be.

Midwife Angela Boyce said: “Even before they’ve had the baby, we’re saying ‘think of the tea, think of the tea’, and it’s often received as the best cup of tea they’ve had in their life.”

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Hospital staff pay for their own tea so the million brews NGH made last year were exclusively for patients and relatives.

They were used as a comfort in all sorts of ways, including in particular with people who have dementia, who are often given theirs in a china cup and saucer to which they have a stronger memory link than the usual plastic cup.

Kim Paterson, a junior sister, said: “It’s as important as giving someone a tablet or a drip. It’s part of the way we care for people.”

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