Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust has announced the opening of its brand new Evelina Children’s Hospital. The £60 million facility is London’s first new children’s hospital for more than 100 years. The 140-bed hospital, which is based on the St Thomas’ Hospital site, brings the majority of Guy’s and St Thomas’ children’s services together under one roof.
Serving children in the boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark, as well as offering specialist care for children from across south east England and further afield (including internationally), the Evelina Children’s Hospital is, quite simply, unique. It is a hospital created by children for children. Young patients and their families have been involved in shaping its environment and architecture from the earliest stages of design, resulting in a state-of-the-art hospital that redefines expectations.
Sir Jonathan Michael, chief executive, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The new Evelina is a supremely practical, state-of-the-art hospital, but one that is full of imagination, warmth and fun. It redefines the concept of a children’s hospital and will undoubtedly influence the building of new hospitals in Britain and across the world.”
The new Evelina is full of ideas suggested by the very youngest “customers” and their families who wanted colour, light and fun. Bright red rocket lifts, clearly visible from inside and outside the hospital, carry people to a four-storey central conservatory. Throughout the hospital, lively artwork, funded by Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, creates a welcoming, friendly atmosphere, while each floor of the hospital has been given a colour and a symbol taken from the natural world – from Ocean and Beach through to Savannah and Sky. Crucially this also avoids the need for a complex multilingual direction system to deal with the 140 languages spoken by local patients.
