Getting to the operating theatre in the fast lane

FORGET being wheeled over to surgery on a hospital bed – children can now arrive for their procedures in style.

In March, Great Ormond Street Hospital in London introduced a ride-on toy sports car for heart, lung, kidney and brain cancer patients to drive themselves to the operating theatre.

Doctors say weaving through the corridors helps distracts children from any anxieties about their procedure.

Great Ormond Street is not the first hospital to trial the idea.

In 2018, a British car club donated 160 toy Teslas to NHS children’s hospitals across the country (pictured above).

When Tesla co-founder Elon Musk got wind of it, he donated £600 to every hospital with a car so they could buy another.

And Volvo retailer Sturgess Motor Group gave a fleet of five ride-on cars to Leicester Royal Infirmary. One patient who had the chance to drive one is sixyear-old Sophia Fagan from Market Harborough in Leicestershire. The drive to the theatre – where she had eight teeth removed – was ‘exciting and fun’ she says, adding: ‘I was scared about the operation, and this made it much better.’

Child health specialist Tracey Martin says: ‘Being wheeled along by doctors can be very daunting.’