Transforming our care environments

Our current focus is on addressing one of the hospital’s most pressing priorities, by extending the Bernard Meade Wing to ensure we can provide the best care possible for children with cancer and for the growing number of patients with age-related macular degeneration and other conditions affecting the back of the eye.

Extending the Royal Eye Unit at ground floor level will create the space needed for a dedicated medical retina unit in one the hospital’s busiest departments, which serves over 75,000 patients each year. Doing so will achieve a number of significant benefits, including: managing the increasing demand from an ageing population; creating an environment that meets the needs of all its users – clinical staff, patients and their families or carers; improving the patient experience by developing a design that better meets their needs; and delivering significant clinical efficiencies by reducing waiting time for first and follow-up appointments, as well as ensuring the patient journey is much smoother and less stressful in-clinic.

At first floor level, a self-contained day care oncology suite is to be developed, which is linked to the rest of the paediatric service, as we have one of the busiest shared care units in the Southeast of England, with 55 to 65 children on active cancer treatment each month. This is in addition to those receiving long-term clinic follow-up. Patients are typically referred from the Royal Marsden, Great Ormond Street or UCLH for shared care as a preferred provider, based on the department’s track record.

Creating this new unit would achieve a significant number of benefits including: a clear separation of children with cancer with vulnerable immunity to infection from other acutely ill children; a dedicated space exclusively for children who make frequent visits for treatment, minimising disruption to the family, while maintaining the child at home and at school, as much as possible; a calm environment for the administration of programmed chemotherapy; reducing congestion in other parts of the paediatric unit; and improving efficiency by separating children with cancer from other acutely ill children.

With construction scheduled to get underway in July 2022, we are keen to complete our fundraising campaign. For a more considered discussion on our plans, please contact Rob Aldous on:

Phone:

020 8973 5040

Email:

rob.aldous@nhs.net