Because of you – Children’s Wards
Children’s Critical Care Room opens
Fundraising was completed for this appeal with the Corporate Lunch in October 2022. The room has been completely refurbished and is now in full use due to winter pressures. We look to officially open this room once its use has calmed down. Thank you to all those who supported.
Seema Sukhani, Paediatric Consultant and huge advocate of the room, quoted: “The stabilisation room has been an invaluable resource and a huge success!
“The building work was completed end of November and we started using it in the first week of December. Even though we had not had a chance to properly stock, there was huge demand during the winter respiratory surge! It has meant that we have a discrete and dedicated space to resuscitate patients.
“It was wonderful to hear direct and unsolicited feedback from one of our anaesthetists in a debrief, who fed back how much easier the room made a challenging scenario with many people (local and PanDR) finding equipment and help easily available in the right place at the right time.
“It was such an enormous effort to achieve this and worth every penny. Well done to you and all who made it happen and use it.”
Jane Jones has a special message.
Sensory Voyager
With great thanks to Luton Sixth Form College, our Children’s Ward at Luton and Dunstable Hospital was able to purchase a Sensory Voyager.
This piece of equipment can be used from new-born to adolescent patients and has lots of fantastic functions to help stimulate patients whilst in hospital, and encourages them to communicate!
Riverbank Youth Space
With help of Bellway Homes and the Caravan Club, our Riverbank Ward at Bedford was able to create a ‘Youth Space’, a new safe space for our older/teen patients to use and enjoy, away from a clinic setting.
This space includes a TV where they can escape from their beds and have some time away from the ‘hospital setting’
Parents Lounge (Children’s Wards)
Thanks to fundraising and some generous donations from Sainsbury’s Bramingham, we have refurbished the Parents Lounge on the Children’s Wards. There is a new kitchen with a microwave and fridge, along with some comfy chairs for the parents to use.
This room gives parents a place to have something to eat and drink, whilst having some time away from the ward.
Magic Carpet Projector
The donation of a magic carpet projector made by the Wallace and Gromit Children’s Foundation has made a huge difference to the lives of many children and babies who are poorly or undergoing treatment at the hospital. The projector has surpassed our hopes and we have seen increased mobility in patients who have multiple and mental disabilities while using it. Children from babies to teenagers enjoy the different functions and themes. On a daily basis staff have used it as a distraction from treatment and to promote physical and sensory stimulation.
Riverbank Ward open their new play room
With special thanks to The Caravan Club and Bedford Hospital Charity & Friends. The play room at Bedford Hospital needed a major refurbishment as it was no longer fit for purpose. A new sensory area has been put in, more space has been created to accommodate crafts for older children and specialised cupboards have been fitted to store the much needed toys.
A warm welcome to Sergeant Phil Boyd!
Sergeant Phil Boyd has recently started visiting our Children’s Ward at Bedford Hospital and the L&D, to deliver interactive and fun story time sessions to our young patients!
He said “I have been in the police service for almost 21 years now and all that service has been in uniform – the first 10 years were on response teams and the first 13 years on shifts. Policing is hard. For me, it became harder when I had children, and I found the balance between being a good policing officer and good dad very difficult. In fact, it was simply exhausting and made me reevaluate my job and what I was doing and so the truth is I began to search for roles within the police that would better support me being a good dad. Being a parent became the priority for the first time above my career. This time allowed me to focus on my children and they have never stopped inspiring me. So much so that I began to write children’s books about them. Reading is such an important part of children’s lives, and our favourite time of the day was bedtime story. I loved reading with them.
“I loved reading children’s books with powerful messaging too and so now that I was in a community engagement role I began to look at ways to incorporate my own passions in to the work place and into engagement. Building trust and confidence in the police and such an important thing. Whilst hard to measure I believe children and our engagement with them is essential to a safer and more cohesive community and so I started to go into schools in uniform to read books to children. Not just that I talk about policing. I talk about how I am a father and that is the most important thing to me. I talk about kindness and how we should all look after each other. Slowly but surely, I am trying to build that trust and my hope is that the children will leave the sessions with a strong positive view of policing and police officers. I often tell the kids that when they see officers, they should wave at them and go and say hello, introduce themselves and know that they are there to help you. I introduced the #EngagewitheveryChild strategy to my Community Cohesion Team and want to ensure that any proactive interaction with a child is a good one. I really believe engaging with children is important and going into schools as well as hospitals and hospices is part of that. I hope everyone continues to enjoy my visits!”
Thank you for visiting us, for your support in creating strong community links, and for making so many patients smile!
