I am thinking Life Cleric 1 / Lore Bard X. But the only question I have is that healing you mentioned all seems out of combat - where hit dice and other healing can help. How are they for in-combat healing, to save lives?
Depends they have access to healing word which can keep people alive but even clerics are not that good at healing in combat. Mass healing word form a life cleric is nice but kind of average from a normal cleric. In combat healing in 5E is kinda weak in general.
My players normally focus on damage mitigation than in combat healing. Stoneskin, bard dice, disadvantage for NPCs hitting, temporary hit points things like that. In combat healing we use the most is probably healing word. Generally they always have 2 healers.
Cleric counts as 1 healer
Life cleric counts as 1.5 healers
Druid and Bard counts as .75 healer
Paladin counts as .5 healer
Healing feat counts as 1 healer.
Druid/cleric and Bard/Cleric counts as 1.5 or 2 healers YMMV.
That is only a rough approximation. The life cleric is really the only good in combat healing class in the game. That is because the incoming damage usually exceeds what healing spells can do hence why they focus on out of combat healing. This starts at low CR critters like Orcs, Hobgoblins, Ogres, Bugbears or Kobold swarms and continues through to CR 5 with things like gladiators and hill giants.
One trick they have used is the healer feat which you can use as a bonus action via the thief. Each time they get KOed they get healed to 1 hp and then after the fight they heal up. At low levels the healer feat out performs even a life cleric and by level 9 it is equivalent to a mass cure spell per short rest. One of them is a bladelock and she farms more hit points via temp hit points (fiend pact) and deals more damage than the fighters/paladins due to hex.
Damage mitigation via cutting words, flare, portend is also very good. Stoneskin is great as well along with stoneskin+heavy armor master and one can use armor of agthys for even more fun and games. 5E has made some defensive abilities worth using.