Evelina London Children’s Hospital has welcomed patients to its new Children’s Day Treatment Centre.
Housing the ‘state-of-the-art’ Children’s Day Surgery Unit, it houses two new operating theatres, and will help the hospital treat up to an additional 2,300 children per year. Families will wait less on the day of surgery, as pre-surgery checks, the operation, recovery, and preparation for discharge can all be done seamlessly in one place, on the same day. With the new facility designed with children and families in mind, an ‘outer space’ theme was chosen in collaboration with staff and patients to match the ‘natural world theme’ of Evelina London’s main children’s hospital building.
During the Centre’s development, Evelina London held a competition to design space-themed artwork to inspire the interior designs. One of the children involved in designing artwork was Aimee Thomas, age 11. Her design was a portrait of Mary Jackson, the first African American female engineer to work at NASA. The design is now featured in one of the new anaesthetic rooms. Aimee, from Peckham in south- east London, has previously had day surgery procedures at Evelina London, including having grommets.
Ahead of the centre opening, children, young people, and families, who supported the new centre’s planning, including designing artwork, attended a special space-themed preview event. Families had a tour of the new unit, and took part in educational activities led by the UK Space Agency and partner organisations.
James O’Brien, director of Operations and Improvement at Evelina London and Project Sponsor, said: “We’re delighted to welcome patients and their families into our new Children’s Day Surgery Unit. We’re proud to provide specialist services for a wide range of health conditions to over 80,000 babies, children, and young people each year across our hospital services. Opening the Children’s Day Treatment Centre is a significant milestone for us in continuing to provide outstanding healthcare for even more children and young people, meeting their needs now and in the future. The look on the children’s faces when they enter the building makes it clear how special the facility is, and how different from what many people would expect when entering a hospital.”
The six-storey Children’s Day Treatment Centre – located next to the Evelina London Children’s Hospital building on Lambeth Palace Road – was constructed by Morgan Sindall Construction and designed by ADP Architecture. The multi-use building has the latest equipment and child-focused technology to help families with all aspects of their care in a fun and engaging way.
Funded by Evelina London Children’s Charity, Japanese manga artist, Kiriko Kubo, who previously designed the award-winning artwork in Evelina London Children’s Hospital, reimagined some of the children’s ideas in designs featured throughout the building. Kiriko worked in association with London based art and design studio, Art in Site, specialists in designing for healthcare environments.
