New appeal launched to transform children's services at Surrey hospital
Cash for Kids and East Surrey Hospital Charity are working together to transform ‘Giraffe Bay’ in East Surrey Hospital.
Cash for Kids is supporting an appeal for funding to improve children's services at East Surrey hospital
The appeal is attempting to raise £18,000 in order to make the hospital a more welcoming place for younger patients.
The hospital is looking for £9,000 in donations, which will be matched by Cash for Kids.
The money will go towards transforming Giraffe Bay into a space that is properly appropriate for young children, and a dedicated adolescent space for teenagers.
Kaylee Goddard is the Associate Chief Nurse for Children and Young People at East Surrey Hospital. She explained to us why the appeal was so important.
"When children and young people come into hospital, it can be an incredibly scary time. In order for us to be able to give them the level of care that they need, we would like to be able to provide that in an environment that is child friendly and is welcoming.
A home from home environments where we're able to give them toys and distraction to be able to meet their individual sensory needs, as well as make sure that all of the equipment and scary beds and equipment that surrounds them is as normalised as possible to desensitise them from some of the scary procedures that they might have to go through.
In order to help them feel as well as they can as quickly as possible and essentially get them home sooner."
Goddard explained to us specifically where the money was going to go
"We're hoping to raise money at East Surrey Hospital to fund the renovation of Giraffe Bay, which has two sections in the outward ward area.
The section that we are focusing on 1st is the adolescent space which will provide us with an environment that is suitable for younger adults rather than younger children in an environment that is much more home from home.
It's less clinical and will hopefully reduce their levels of anxiety and the stresses that come with being in hospital.
The other section of Giraffe Bay that we're hoping to raise money for is a four bedded Bay that would house children who could be infectious or could not be infectious depending on the time of year."
East Surrey hospital has been visiting schools in the area in order to get their input on the design and find out what would work from a child's perspective
Goddard told us that the ideas that came up in schools were fantastic
"They've come up with some fantastic ideas about giraffes going on holiday and scene that would wrap all of the walls.
Seeing lots of giraffes on holiday, but also in a way that is not too overwhelming for any children that have additional sensory needs."
Goddard also told us that she was confident that once there was enough funding, progress could be made quickly with delivering the improvement.
"We're hoping that we would be in a position once the money is raised to progress with all of this work immediately as we already have the quotes from relevant companies to undertake the work.
Having worked with these companies historically, we know that they have a high level of work that they would be able to do within a matter of weeks of having the funding raised."