Children’s hospital in need of £14m for upgrades

A MULTI-MILLION-POUND fundraising appeal has been launched to transform hospital services for thousands of children in South Yorkshire.

A charity has set out ambitious plans to raise more than £14m to pay for much-needed upgrades at Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

In its biggest-ever fundraising appeal, the Children’s Hospital Charity wants to bring in £5.5m to build a new emergency department to cope with rising demand.

There is a desperate need to expand the hospital’s existing A&E, which was built to care for 32,000 patients a year, but now sees close to 60,000.

A further £6m will pay for a helipad at the hospital to speed up emergency care.

Helicopters currently have to land in nearby Weston Park before patients are carried across a busy road to A&E with a police escort.

And £2.75m is needed for improvements to the hospital’s cancer and leukaemia ward, which is a treatment centre for poorly children from South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and North Derbyshire and even as far south as Northampton.

David Vernon-Edwards, director of the Children’s Hospital Charity, said: “This is our biggestever fundraising appeal and these projects have never been more needed as we strive to build a better future for Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

“Every donation, large or small, will make a difference to young patients from across the UK and beyond who depend on our hospital’s excellent care.”

At the moment helicopters cannot land after dark but will have 24-hour access thanks to perimeter landing lights and floodlighting.

The launch of the Build a Better Future appeal, which aims to raise £14.25m, follows the opening of the hospital’s new wing in April 2018 after £10m in charity cash was secured.

Sheffield Children’s Hospital is one of only four dedicated children’s hospital’s in the UK, with 269,000 patient visits a year, more than Great Ormond Street in London. The plans will completely transform the cancer and leukaemia ward, adding more space, privacy and natural light.

Youngsters will have their own rooms and there will be beds for parents to ease anxiety during treatment.

The A&E is a major trauma centre which helps up to 220 children a day from around the region. Work will include an improved reception and waiting area, more clinical space and a dedicated entrance. It will also create two dedicated triage assessment rooms so nurses can assess patients more quickly.