Norwich emergency staff will receive free pizza from Domino’s after a health care worker’s attempt to treat her colleagues had to be cancelled last-minute as the takeaway could not be delivered to the hospital front door.
Zoe Smith, from Sprowston, works as health care assistant at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and wanted to “spread the love around” after the owner of GB Auto Fix Norwich waived the cost of fixing her car due to her working in the NHS.
She decided to use the money to order food for colleagues in the emergency department on Saturday.
She phoned the Colman Road branch of Domino’s to buy £78-worth of pizza to be delivered later that evening to the team.
She said: “This was my chance to spread the love back to work. If they had said to me, unfortunately we only have one drop off point and that is the bus stop, I would have said ‘sorry to have bothered you but that would not be possible to send someone out to collect it’.
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“I asked if the delivery person was happy to follow my instructions to the letter before I placed the order. They said ‘yes’ - they were quick to take my money.”
Two-and-a-half hours later she received a message saying the driver had arrived at the bus stop of the hospital, and asked for someone to come out to collect the pizza.
With staff unable to leave, the order had to be cancelled.
Domino’s has apologised and offered a selection of pizzas for the team to enjoy. The company said it had donated hundreds of pizzas to the hospital during its Pizza For Heroes campaign.
Rachel Townsend, a spokesperson for Domino’s, said: “We’re sorry about the problem Mrs Smith experienced with her delivery. We have given her a full refund and as a gesture of goodwill have offered to send a selection of pizza for her and her colleagues to enjoy, which she has accepted.”
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In addition to the refund the N&N worker was sent a hamper of treats by her bank for the team.
On a note, the bank wrote: “On behalf of Barclays Liverpool fraud department please accept these as a small token of appreciation for all the amazing work you and your team do.”
On Sunday the keen cook spent four hours making homemade crumpets for staff.
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