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The annual NHS family fun day set up by Teesside doctors that’s getting bigger every year
A family fun day set up by a group of Hartlepool and Stockton GP practices for NHS staff is growing year on year.
This year it will take place on Saturday, June 24 at Wolviston Cricket Club on Wynward Road in Stockton from 9am to 6pm and it has been organised by the Hartlepool and Stockton Healthcare GP Federation.
More than 400 tickets have already been sold and the local MP and mayor will attend the event.
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The group of GPs started this annual event for NHS colleagues three years ago and it has since grown massively. It was set up following Covid as staff morale was low among primary and secondary care colleagues as well as other NHS workers.
Dr Yusuf Soni, GP partner at Riverside Medical Practice and Arrival Practice, Stockton, said: “We started this event three years ago just following Covid. The morale was so low. We hadn’t seen our colleagues and we just thought we needed to bring in people together to thank them for all the hard work they have been doing.
“There has been quite a lot of interest from local MPs and the mayor so they have attended and played their part in thanking the staff and everyone else. I think everyone is really appreciative in terms of the effort and planning that goes behind organising such a big event.
“We never thought it would become so big. We just thought a few interested people would come along.”
The family fun day will see primary and secondary care colleagues, dentist and mental health trust colleagues and their families coming together to celebrate the hard work carried out by the staff. There will be games and activities throughout the day for adults and children, including a cricket match, face painting, a bouncing castle and there will also be a barbeque.
Dr Soni said that around 130 people attended the event the first year it was held and this grew to around 220 the next year. This year he is expecting around 420 people to come along and he feels that the event is “something that brings people together without any kind of agenda”.
Speaking about how Covid affected Hartlepool and Stockton NHS staff, he explained: “There was probably a high amount of anxiety among the staff for their own health and what was happening in the country, what the future might hold and how they would be working during those times. Dealing with more stressful people brings some stress to yourself I guess.
“I think working in isolation as well, not seeing people, working from home – that definitely had an impact on mental health for the clinical staff. There’s a lot more collaboration that has taken place between primary and secondary care so I’m very pleased with that.”
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