A new Children’s Outpatients Centre has opened at University Hospital Waterford.
Staff say the new facility enables doctors and nurses to treat between 30 and 40 children per day, and has already significantly reduced wait times.
Works to accommodate children’s outpatient appointments at its new location was supported by the Juniors for Juniors Foundation.
Its Co-Founder and Director Emer Kelly, who brought colour and toys to the new unit, outlines the ethos behind the foundation.
"It is really hard to be in hospital, especially as a child. You have to come in, get your treatments and get everything done but at least now you can come in and get a colouring book, a toy, a brave cert, stickers and you can get to see the nice wall art.
"It just changes the whole experience for the kids. That is the entire ethos of why we existed in the first place.
The brand new facility for children's outpatient appointments at University Hospital Waterford includes eight clinical rooms, with staff now able to see double the number of patients.
The waiting room at the Children's Outpatients Centre has been donned with colour, and filled with toys, donated by the Junior4Juniors foundation.
Consultant Aoife Carroll says they have been able reduce waiting times signifcantly.
"Now that we have access to this space we have clinics running every day of the week.
"You can see from the mural and the room that it is child friendly and sometimes we have two to three clinics running a day.
"On average we can see 30 to 40 kids a day and on days when our ophthalmology colleagues are seeing children that get up to 60 or 70 so we have been able to reduce our wait times significantly."
Janet O'Neill's son attends the centre at UHW, and says creating a fun environment is vital for kids.
"It makes some difference for the children because it is a real distraction. Because it is so bright and colourful and fun it allows the children to just be children.
"I was talking to one of the nurses here and sometimes they say the children don't want to go home.
"It's like a playground for them. A lot of the children don't associate it with the hospital and they really have great fun here."
The new Children’s Outpatients Centre is now fully open at University Hospital Waterford.
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