Waiting rooms can often be a daunting and adult orientated space for children and young people, but with help from Lancashire Teaching Hospital Charity, the paediatric waiting area of Core Therapies is now a more comfortable and friendlier place for children to spend time.

A mounted TV, toys and child friendly furniture at the cost of £827, are all new additions which will on average be used by over 50 children, under 12, every week and will help to make important visits to hospital engaging and a little less intimidating.

Joanna Kunc-Hunek, Integrated Nutrition and Communication Services Business Support Manager, says: “For young children hospital corridors and waiting areas are not the most welcoming of environments. Core Therapies patients can be very complex with significant physical conditions – attending appointments on stretchers, using specialist wheelchairs (which look and act in ways that are very different from normal wheelchairs), wearing metal collars and braces, or big orthopaedics boots. They can often be suffering with pain and discomfort so visits to our department can be very distressing time. Prior to the changes our Paediatric Physiotherapy waiting area was not a child friendly space and left our patients with very little to engage with. Having new furniture, toys and a TV has brought big smiles to the faces of our patients and their parents/guardians, and we are so proud to have created a safe, stimulating and positive space where children are distracted from their surroundings. Ensuring it’s a place where ‘waiting time flies’'”

Dan Hill, Head of Hospital Charities says: “We are delighted to be able to support the improvements to the waiting areas and public spaces across the trust. Welcoming spaces have such an enormous impact on the well-being of patients, ensuring the time they spend with us is beneficial to their overall care and they leave with a positive lasting impression. This is a project that the staff in Core Therapies have been extremely passionate about and it is fantastic to be able to support them to make the important changes they know benefit their young patients.”

We want to say thank you to Sony Distributors who donated the 43” TV and to D&G Builders and Joiners who kindly installed the mounted TV at no cost. It is with the wonderful donations of all supporters, we can fund projects that make a real difference to the care and well-being of patients across Lancashire Teaching Hospitals.