HARD-WORKING health teams battling coronavirus have received a huge morale boost thanks to their love of Harry Potter.

They used the world-famous book and film series to redesign systems in the Royal Bournemouth Hospital as the crisis began to deepen.

And they have received endorsement from none other than billionaire Harry Potter author JK Rowling herself.

The teams are using the house system which operates in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.


The four house names - Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravensclaw - are being used to separate handover rooms in the hospital.

And when staff tweeted a picture to JK Rowling she replied: “ I’ve rarely felt prouder.”

A spokesman for the hospital said: “The medical team took the decision to name teams after the Harry Potter houses as they were redesigning systems to be better prepared for Covid.

“RBH Chief Resident Carly Slinger is a Harry Potter fan so they ran with that idea as a bit of fun amongst all the significant issues. We have since discovered that the Royal Free in London is also using a similar system.”

Senior House Officer Alex Maslen planned and placed the signs around the hospital for meeting places and tweeted it to the author as the idea had gone down so well with the staff teams.

Alex said: “The house names are familiar to many junior doctors who grew up with the Harry Potter stories, and the awareness has provided some reassurance during these difficult times.”

Dr Mike Wheble, Consultant in Acute Medicine said: “I then took the decision to say thank-you to Rowling via a tweet for her lovely message saying she had “rarely felt prouder” to see the house names used in this way, and was somewhat shocked to have a lovely reply almost immediately, which is really supportive of all of us in the NHS.

“It is so uplifting to get a message like that and has meant so much to me personally and so many of my colleagues here locally and indeed nationally.”

The message said: “Everyone owes you & your colleagues thanks. Stay safe, Michael.”

A hospital spokesperson said: “In these unprecedented times it’s great to see our staff using their creativity to cascade vital information to their teams in a way that not only resonates well with everyone, but that also lifts their spirits.”