Our vision for our young patients

Our goal is for our young patients and their families to have the best possible experience when they come to Ipswich Hospital. To do this, we want to create a modern, welcoming and child-friendly environment which matches the high standards of care our staff provide.

We want to bring our children’s department into the 21st century by creating light, airy surroundings which make the best possible use of the space we have available and provide improved facilities for our all of our patients, their families and carers. By taking away some of the physical barriers which currently divide the department, our staff will be able to work more effectively as a team while maintaining their focus on delivering a gold standard of care for every single patient.

We are asking for your support to help us fundraise towards the £2.5m total cost of the project so that we can start work on creating this exciting new-look children’s department and transforming care for our young patients.

Where we are now

Our children’s department is made up of three areas:

• The 24-bed Bergholt inpatient ward
• Our children’s outpatient department
• The short stay Paediatric Assessment Unit (PAU), where emergency patients can be assessed while our staff decide how best to treat their condition

These facilities were built in the 1960s and refurbished in the mid-80s, but have remained largely unchanged since, despite large rises in demand for our services. Coupled with this, the layout of the ward is making it increasingly difficult for our staff to continue delivering high quality, compassionate care while meeting the special requirements of individual patients.

At the moment, our outpatient department does not have enough clinic rooms, while the décor is dark and the layout difficult to navigate. Our ward needs more en-suite rooms, side rooms and increased high dependency facilities, as well as more dedicated space for teenage patients. Our play provision could also be improved to make it more inclusive and accessible to everyone coming into hospital.

The improvements we are planning

With the help of our patients and their families, we have drawn up exciting plans to create a light, bright and airy children’s department which makes the best possible use of the space we have available and will enable us to continue meeting increasing demand for our services. Carried out in phases over the next two to three years, it will see:

• Clinic rooms in our outpatient department increase from 6 to 14, with dedicated spaces allocated for specialist clinics such as diabetes, cystic fibrosis and physiotherapy
• Separate entrances created for the outpatients and inpatients departments
• Multiple break-out play areas created to give all children the chance to play
• Clinic and quiet rooms repositioned to provide more privacy
• The outside play area refurbished

On the ward:

• En-suite rooms will increase from one to four and side rooms from 7 to 10
• Dedicated teenage / young person spaces will be created
• The total number of beds will increase from 24 to 26, while more isolation cubicles will be available
• A two-bed high dependency area will be created
• More space will be provided in bays for specialist equipment and so that parents can stay with their children
• A separate dining area will be introduced so that patients can eat away from others who may be nil by mouth or have an eating disorder

The revamped department has been designed to make sure patients can move easily between the assessment area and ward if necessary. It will be beautifully illustrated, depicting a Suffolk farming and countryside theme so that it stands the test of time and will appeal to children and young people of all ages.