The project, funded and arranged through Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust’s Well Wishers charity, has seen colourful, child-friendly murals added to clinic areas and waiting rooms, along with a new TV and a library corner.   The department can see up to 800 children, aged two to 16, every week, attending appointments for services including Respiratory, Allergies, Diabetes, Cardiology, Ear Nose and Throat (ENT), General Surgery and Orthopaedics.   Feedback from Little Voices, a group of local schoolchildren working with the Patient Experience Team, highlighted that the current area was uninviting and not child friendly.   The new murals follow the adventures of Humphrey, Well Wishers’ charity bear, and include things for children to spot during their appointments, using a ‘Where’s Wally?’ style concept.   This provides a distraction for children who may be finding the whole experience of an appointment daunting. And the new look has the thumbs up from young patients.   Leon Kaczmarek, 10, said: “I really like the images around the waiting area, and it is fun to look for the Humphrey bears while I am waiting to be seen.

 

“The colours are fun and vibrant and I love animals, it looks amazing.”

  The makeover has all been made possible through a grant from Morrisons as part of the supermarket’s 125th anniversary celebrations.   Laura Andrews, Community Champion at Morrisons Willenhall, said: “Morrisons are really proud to have been able to help with the project.   “As a company, we aim to help local charities in whatever way we can, big or small. We were really pleased to work with and support Well Wishers with their bid submission and I was pleased when I found out Well Wishers had won the grant, and also the full amount of £8,000 had been awarded”   Amrik Singh from Vibrant Networks, which has also supported the project, said: “We have a great relationship with Well Wishers, and being a Walsall-based company, we always like to support close to home.   “With Well Wishers we get to see the impact straight away and see the difference it makes, so when Georgie asked if we could help with a TV for the waiting area, we were more than happy to help and within days turned up with a 55” television.”   Georgie Westley, Fundraising Manager, said: “We want every child who comes into Paediatric Outpatients to feel as comfortable as possible during their visit.   “This project already has made, and will continue to make. a real difference to the environment for children and young people, whether in the waiting areas or walking through the corridors. The graphics are so much fun and as Children’s Outpatients sees hundreds of children every week, this is a project that will benefit families for years to come.”