Raising money for the RD&E’s youngest hospital patients.

When you’re eight years old and in need of urgent medical care, visiting hospital can be a scary time. Strange sights and sounds, unfamiliar faces and feelings of uncertainty about what will happen next. Perhaps even feelings that they may never get better.

Royal Devon Hospitals Charity is raising money to help create a separate space for children and families within the brand-new Emergency Department (ED) being built at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (RD&E).

The ED is undergoing a multi-million-pound transformation by the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and we’re hoping to raise £250,000 to help make it the best it can be for children needing urgent medical care.

With your support, this calm and welcoming waiting area will have ocean-themed wall murals and light panels, interactive digital equipment, and comfortable seating with plenty of all-important USB charging points!

The dedicated children’s ED area will also feature paediatric bays and a new Paediatric Assessment Unit (PAU) to help provide emergency care to around 30,000 young patients a year.

It will mean children and young people will no longer have to sit alongside adults in an often-cramped waiting room at what can be a very upsetting time.

Tori Riches, Clinical Matron at the RD&E, said: “This project will transform the way that we can care for children at the RD&E and will help them feel safe and secure from the moment they arrive.

“To have an environment that is friendly, and where children can be separated from some of the other things that they might witness in a busy emergency department, will be fantastic.”

If you have any questions or would like to find out other ways to get involved please give us a call at 01392 402040 or email [email protected].