£2m Emergency Department Appeal Closes Thanks to Incredible Legacy Gift

Just nine months since it first launched, we are celebrating the closure of our £2m Emergency Department Appeal, thanks to an incredible £500,000 legacy gift from kind supporter Dennis David Eastwood.

Our hospital’s Emergency Department (ED) is the only major trauma centre for children and young people in the Midlands. Our hospital staff work around the clock delivering expert treatment to over 67,000 sick kids each year – 67% more children than intended when the department was last updated in 2012. It’s urgent need of transformation to ensure the facilities matched the world-class care delivered.

With Trust and NHS funding already secured, a multi-phase scheme has been developed to update and improve the entire department. Thanks to this generous legacy gift, we’ve now raised the £2m needed through our fundraising appeal to help accelerate and enhance the project.

As well as kind-hearted gifts from the public and businesses, our appeal was also generously supported by a £100,000 grant from the Morrisons Foundation and £400,000 from our charity’s visionary network of Changemakers.

To celebrate the successful £2m milestone, our hospital’s Head of Urgent Care, Katie Johnston, Head of Nursing, Stewart Mason, and Head of Strategic Projects at our charity, Nicole Hermanns, visited our hospital’s enhanced and expanded ED waiting area.

Opened this summer, as phase one of the development project, the improved waiting area provides patients with a bright and welcoming environment. It features comfortable seating, as well as play and sensory equipment to help distract them from what’s ahead, plus relaxing, nature-themed artwork to create a more child-friendly and calming environment.

Visitors to the new waiting room have already commented: “For a family which has been coming to the hospital for the past 12 years and regularly uses the emergency department, the new space is so different. I used to dread having to wait in the old area, it always felt so cramped and stuffy, but this looks amazing and so much more inviting for the children and families.”

Work on the transformation of our ED continues, with phase two underway to create three new resus rooms, providing more space for colleagues to work, better privacy for families and new equipment, such as a mobile x-ray machine.

Looking ahead, the appeal will also support the creation of much-needed facilities for some of our most vulnerable patients, such as a Changing Places toilet, a baby change/feeding room, a sensory room, a dedicated safe space for mental health patients and a family room where doctors can speak with family members in a calm and supportive space.

Katie Johnston said “We’re beyond delighted by the success of the appeal. More and more young people come through our doors each day with increasingly complex needs, so being able to expand our clinical spaces and introduce new technology will allow us to treat these patients more efficiently and improve outcomes.

“We’ve already seen what a massive difference our new waiting room has had on the experience of our patients and families, and our further phases will enable us to create an Emergency Department we can all be proud of.”

Nicole Hermanns added: “We’re so thrilled to have reached our £2m milestone in just over nine months. The money raised will help us make the changes desperately needed by the thousands of patients and their families who rely on our ED each year and deserve the best possible care.

“On behalf of our hospital, charity and patients, I would like to thank everyone who donated, fundraised and spread the word about this appeal. We’re especially thankful to Dennis David Eastwood for his incredible legacy gift, which allowed us to reach our target. The generosity of our community will impact thousands of children every year.”

We look forward to sharing more updates in the coming weeks as our ED transformation progresses.