Evelina London opens new Children’s Day Treatment Centre

Evelina London Children’s Hospital has welcomed patients to the new Children’s Day Treatment Centre.

Housing the state-of-the-art Children’s Day Surgery Unit, the facility has two new operating theatres, and will help the hospital to 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 going home can all be done in a seamless way in one place, on the same day.

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 inside the Children’s Day Surgery Unit.

One of the children involved in designing artwork was Aimee Thomas, age 11. Aimee’s 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 planning of the new centre, 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.

Aimee said: “It was really cool to see my drawing on the wall, it was so exciting as I didn’t realise it would be there. I learnt about Mary Jackson at school, as not many people had heard of her and how she helped to get the first man on the moon. I hope my design helps other people learn about her. I also loved taking part in the space activities and I got to try on a space suit!

“It was exciting to see in the different rooms and to go inside an operating theatre. The new unit looks cheerful with the rockets and glowing lights, and there are lots of fun activities to do. It doesn’t feel like a hospital. If I had to have another operation, I’d like it to be here!”

James O’Brien, Director of Operations and Improvement at Evelina London and Project Sponsor, said: “We are 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’.”

Chris Streather, Medical Director for the NHS in London, said: “I’m thrilled to see this new state of the art facility opening, it will help staff provide high-quality care to thousands more children a year. We know that no child wants to be in hospital which is why this Children’s Day Surgery Unit is so important, to get families home on the same day – their visit may even be out of this world.”

The six-storey Children’s Day Treatment Centre was constructed by Morgan Sindall Construction, designed by ADP Architecture, and engineered by Mott MacDonald. It is located next to the Evelina London Children’s Hospital building on Lambeth Palace Road.

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, who are specialists in designing for healthcare environments.