Starship axes clown doctors

Shock as 100% satisfaction success not enough to save much-loved children’s therapists. By Hannah Martin.

THE Clown Doctors at Starship Children’s Hospital are being dumped in favour of virtual reality and play therapists.

Parents are unhappy to see the clowns go, saying they help ease the stress for kids on the wards.

But the Starship Foundation which has paid for the clowns for seven years says there has been a shift of focus to ‘‘clinical imperatives such as play specialists’’.

Clown Doctors are not medical doctors, they are trained clowns who dress up as doctors.

Founder and chief executive of the Clown Doctors New Zealand Charitable Trust, Thomas Petschner, says he is ‘‘very surprised’’ by the decision to axe them.

The Clown Doctors’ contract with Starship is up at the end of May and Petschner says he doesn’t understand the motivation behind moving funds to what he’s been told will be play therapists and virtual reality.

‘‘We were getting 100 per cent in patient satisfaction surveys ... it seemed like kind of a nobrainer,’’ Petschner says. ‘‘We’re here to help children in need.’’

Thirteen-year-old Kate Chandulal has Crouzon syndrome, and has spent most of her life in Starship Hospital.

During her time on the wards, she has undergone 122 operations, and has developed an anxiety disorder as a result, mumBridget Chandulal says.

‘‘Anything to do with waiting for surgery, the equipment, or even testing makes her very anxious now,’’ hermumsaid.

But the Clown Doctors eased her fears. ‘

‘Kate just adores them. It’s such a shame to lose them. Their presence just takes your mind off things and brings a bit of fun and normalcy back.’’

Clown Doctor Zack McCracken – Dr Cracker as she’s known at Starship – says they allow ‘‘kids to access the part of themselves that gets forgotten in a hospital’’.

McCracken recalls getting through to a patient who hadn’t smiled in a week by performing a badly-sung rendition of Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire.

Hismumpulled the Clown Doctors aside and thanked them, saying she never thought he would laugh again.

It’s such a shame to lose them. Their presence just takes your mind off things and brings a bit of fun and normalcy back.’ BRIDGET CHANDULAL