Birmingham Children's Hospital Community Dream

Intro to hospital: 

Birmingham Children’s Hospital is a leading, specialist paediatric centre, delivering some of the most advanced treatments, complex surgical procedures, specialist services and cutting-edge research to over 100,000 children and young people from across the UK and beyond. It is a world-renowned centre for paediatric medicine and a global centre of excellence for the treatment of complex heart conditions, burns, childhood cancers and liver and kidney disease. 

The Dream: 

The hospital’s charity aims to ensure children, young people and their families receive world-class care and a welcoming, positive hospital experience. They reached out to Dreams Come True with an ask to support with supplying four new interactive screens for different areas of the hospital.  

The request was made because of the importance of play on a child’s experience of hospital. Research shows that children who are happy and relaxed cope better with their treatment and recover a lot quicker than those who are more anxious. This Community Dream was requested to help bring play and learning to more patients through digital technology. 

The screens are educational, fun and interactive and sit within four departmental waiting areas in Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Three of the screens are fixed and one is mobile and able to move from the waiting room into treatment rooms, as needed: 

• The mobile screen is located within the Renal Unit, which is the second largest paediatric renal unit in the UK. It treats children and young people who have chronic renal failure and require dialysis as they await a kidney transplant, as well as patients with kidney conditions and with bladder and bowel disfunction. The unit treats 5,400 patients a year. 

• The first wall mounted screen sits in Radiology. The hospital’s paediatric imaging department provides an extensive range of services including CT, MRI, fluoroscopy, X-Ray, nuclear medicine and ultrasound. These scans are used to diagnose and monitor various conditions such as fractures, respiratory issues, congenital abnormalities, cancers and transplants. One of the busiest departments in the hospital, it sees approximately 51,000 patients a year. 

• The second wall mounted screen is placed in the Rare Diseases Centre which runs nationally commissioned services for different rare conditions such as Alström Syndrome, Bardet-Biedl Syndrome, Wolfram Syndrome, Epidermolysis Bullosa, inherited metabolic diseases and retinoblastoma. The screen is installed in the Rare Diseases Outpatient Department, an area which is also used by Neurology, Rheumatology and Respiratory, amongst others and sees hundreds of patients a month. 

• The final wall mounted screen sits in the waiting room of the Rainforest Corridor, home to Health in Mind, the hospital’s mental health support service for children, young people, and their families. It is where a team of psychologists, psychiatrists and play specialists meet patients and families to help them manage their healthcare journeys, cope with acute and chronic health conditions and achieve the best possible quality of life for the young person. The team also has two learning disability liaison nurses dedicated to supporting children and young people with learning disabilities. 

The Impact: 

All four screens will bring play and entertainment to more areas of Birmingham Children’s Hospital, positively impacting on their hospital experience. Research has shown that 54% of children are afraid of going to hospital. This fear and anxiety can lead to missed appointments or extended wait times as doctors and nurses struggle to perform simple procedures. The screens will help reduce a child’s fear and therefore allow them to engage better with their treatment and have a greater potential for appointments to run to time and not be missed. 

The interactive screens will let kids be kids, giving them the opportunity to play and have fun. It is important patients have a positive experience of hospital as many will return for future appointments. The Community Dream aligns with our charitable objectives at Dreams Come True as it will bring the magic of play to young patients at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, many of whom have serious illnesses and life-limiting conditions and face challenges exacerbated by poverty. Birmingham is the seventh most deprived area in England and the most deprived authority in the West Midlands area. This fact is reflected in Birmingham Children Hospital’s patient population, with 53.8% of patients living in the top 30% of the most deprived areas in England. 

The Visit: