Children’s Hospital Outpatients Department Gets Makeover
Bright new artwork has been unveiled at Royal Derby Hospitals Children’s Outpatients department thanks to a collaboration between charity-funded arts programme, Air Arts, Derby & Burton Hospitals Charity and the hospitals League Of Friends Group, to create a sense of calm for patients moving around the hospital.
The entire Children’s Hospital reception area was transformed as part of the project including a new vinyl floor throughout designed by Lisa Pilley and supported by Derby Healthcare plc, a new colour scheme by Lisa and a total replacement of all the seats from Rhubarb seating manufacturers.
The project has been devised to help children and young people, as well as parents and carers, interact with their surroundings, creating adventure and distraction to ensure they feel relaxed at what can be a difficult time.
The refurbished areas include bright and fun artwork, acting as distraction for children on their way to appointments by featuring artwork on the walls throughout the department.
The exciting designs by Carl Wilson feature colourful cartoon characters and even feature illustrations based on Carl and his son, River, exploring the world together. Great care has also been taken throughout the project to limit disruption to patients.
Project Manager Supports Officer, Lisa Redfern, ensured the project was completed with minimal disruption to patients, “The overarching priority throughout the project has been to ensure that there was minimal disruption to patient care and pathways.
“The redeveloped areas greatly enhance the patient experience in the hospital and the new artwork has helped engage and distract the children using them, often in very difficult moments.”
Artist, Carl Wilson added: “I loved working on this project. It was great to be able to create a series of immersive illustrations to provide some escapism to patients and visitors. I hope it will provide a joyful experience and inspire imaginations.”
Jill Matthews, Chief Officer for Derby & Burton Hospitals Charity, was keen to remind staff who see the artwork every day, that the public are supporting them, “What I’d like to remind everybody is, as you look at this beautiful scenery, you have all done so much for our patients and their families and when you look at all of this artwork, remember, the money came from people who wanted to thank you. This is our communities saying thank you.”
The revamp is one of the latest installations by Air Arts, an arts initiative supported by the hospital charity. Air Arts have also recently installed inclusive artwork welcoming patients and visitors to the combined day unit at Royal Derby Hospital in a variety of languages, and bright new artwork on wards to brighten up uninviting areas, Laura Waters, Head of Arts at UHDB said, ” This is the biggest project Air Arts has undertaken to date and it’s been amazing to see a full scheme come together to completely transform our children’s hospital.
Everything has been developed in consultation with staff and patients, and the result is a calm and welcoming environment, clean and modern but also fun and inviting for children and adults alike. It just shows what a difference we can make when the whole environment is thought through as a unified scheme.”
