Children's Hospital for Wales

Coordinates: 51°29′06″N 3°09′43″W / 51.485°N 3.162°W / 51.485; -3.162

Children's Hospital for Wales
Noah's Ark Appeal
Geography
Location Heath Park,
Cardiff,
Wales,
CF14 4XW,
United Kingdom
Organisation
Care system Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
Hospital type Children's hospital
Affiliated university Cardiff University
Services
Emergency department No
Beds 179 (after Phase Two)
History
Founded

2005 (Phase One)

2015 (Phase Two)
Links
Website Noah's Ark

The Children's Hospital for Wales, also known as the Children's Hospital, Cardiff is a children's hospital in Cardiff, Wales. It is situated on the site of the University Hospital of Wales in the Heath area of the city.

The hospital opened in two phases. The first phase opened in 2005 and the second phase opened in 2015. Each floor has its own distinct artwork theme.

The hospital serves Cardiff as well as South, Mid and West Wales. The hospital is expected to admit 23,000 inpatients and 50,000 outpatients per year, with one third of patients coming from outside the Cardiff Health Board area. In addition, specialists from the hospital perform clinics annually across Wales in local hospitals with local paediatricians.[1]

Phase One

The building work for Phase One of the Children's Hospital for Wales began in April 2003. The hospital admitted its first patients at the end of February 2005 and the Noah’s Ark Appeal led by Charlotte Church and young patients handed over the keys to the Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust on 1 March 2005. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas opened the Children’s Hospital for Wales in 2005.

Phase One of the Children's Hospital for Wales brought new, purpose-designed buildings and facilities for children's services such as a new main entrance, atrium and reception. As this is on the Ocean floor of the hospital, the artwork all ties in with the ocean theme featuring a fish tank and a fish tree sculpture. The interactive wall plays different sounds of the sea and calming music.

Phase One incurred two medical wards (Ocean and Land) with bedside parents' accommodation, family room, parent lounges, playrooms and an education room. A children's cancer unit is on two floors (Sky and Space) including an in-patient ward, day care unit, outpatients and full family accommodation. There is a teenage lounge with internet café, younger children’s playrooms, a quiet room and a parent lounge.[2]

Playrooms at the Children’s Hospital of Wales were restocked with new toys by city department store John Lewis after the South Wales Echo reported that the theft of toys threatened a playroom with closure. The donated toys included DVDs, toy cars, dolls and Wii controllers.[3]

Phase Two

Edwina Hart AM, the Health Minister of Wales announced that the Welsh Assembly Government would fund the capital costs of phase two of the Children’s Hospital for Wales.

On 1 July 2010, First Minister Carwyn Jones earmarked almost £7m for the second phase of the hospital to minimise any further delays once the final plans are approved. Construction work began in 2011 and was scheduled to open in 2014.

Phase two opened in May 2015

Phase two includes:[4]

Noah's Ark Appeal

The Noah's Ark Appeal is the hospital's fundraising campaign, founded in May 2000 to build, equip and support the only children's hospital for Wales. The capital funding for Phase Two comes from the Welsh Assembly Government but the Noah’s Ark Appeal is needed to provide some major pieces of equipment such as an open MRI scanner, the art program as well as other state-of-the-art specialist equipment.[5]

The Noah’s Ark Appeal was launched following a 10-year period of lobbying and campaigning by the charity’s founder trustees to raise initially £5 million for the building costs of phase one. The Noah’s Ark Appeal continued to support the Children’s Hospital for Wales while at the same time pressing for the hospital to be completed by the Welsh Assembly Government. By 2008 over £12 million had been raised.[6]

The patrons of the appeal are Cardiff born Dame Shirley Bassey and Charlotte Church, and Catherine Zeta-Jones.[7]

Catherine Zeta-Jones and husband Michael Douglas toured the hospital on 23 July 2010 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the fundraising campaign, 5 years after they opened the first phase of the hospital.[8]

Funds raised

In 2006 the Noah's Ark Appeal raised £300,000 towards the building of a teenage cancer trust unit which is the largest one of its kind in the UK and will enable teenagers to be treated with other teenagers rather than with young children or old people. A further £25,000 has since been given for additional equipment. The appeal has also funded £200,000 worth of state-of-the-art equipment for the paediatric eye department making it one of the best in the UK.

The Noah’s Ark Appeal has provided at a cost of £150,000 free bedside TV and radio for patients at the Children’s Hospital for Wales. £160,000 has been provided to refurbish a new young persons unit.

The appeal provides equipment when requested such as biopsy kits (£5000) and a bladder scanner (£8000) which will be taken by a nurse to children’s homes principally in Mid and West Wales. The scanner, specially designed for children, can aid diagnosis and prevent unnecessary treatment or flag up problems that if untreated at an early stage could lead to kidney problems.

References

  1. ↑ Noah's Ark Appeal: Q&A
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ Wales Online | Sick children can play again after city store’s toys gift
  4. ↑
  5. ↑ Noah's Ark Appeal: Our Mission
  6. ↑ Noah's Ark Appeal: Our History
  7. ↑ Noah's Ark Appeal: Patrons
  8. ↑ WalesOnline | Zeta-Jones visits Wales’ children’s hospital
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