Launch event for Leeds Children’s Hospital TV
16 May 2016
A new resource aimed at children, young people and their families is being launched to provide an insight into the wards and departments at Leeds Children’s Hospital, and what it is like to be a patient there.
Leeds Children’s Hospital TV brings together a range of specially-made films made in conjunction with ward staff or sometimes by young people and their families themselves.
It is intended to provide accessible, friendly information to help children and families prepare for a visit, explaining what to expect on a ward or during a particular procedure. It also enables feedback from existing patients in a fun, interactive way.
Kindly funded by the Leeds Children’s Hospital Appeal, the service is built on expertise already in place through JTV Cancer Support, a service aimed at young people with cancer nationwide, which started at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds.
Nurse consultant Sue Morgan is one of the driving forces behind the project at Leeds Children’s Hospital. “This is very exciting for us and the first time in the UK a children’s hospital has launched this type of service,” she commented.
“We know coming into hospital can be stressful for young people and their parents, and much of that is about the fear of the unknown. Seeing the friendly faces of our staff, what the wards are like and hearing from youngsters already in hospital will hopefully prove reassuring - feedback so far has been really positive.”
Leeds Children’s Hospital TV is headed up by Mark Wilkinson of Mosaic North, who added: “It's a very exciting time seeing the model we developed for young cancer patients to share their experiences being utilised in a similar way to now provide resources for all young people and their families at Leeds Children's Hospital. Our hope is that this becomes an excellent and inspiring example of how to ensure user involvement for other hospitals across the UK.
“Children, young people and their families have the opportunity to create content either through the video booth on the ward or by simply texting to get access to the uploader via smartphone. We feel that not only is this the future of user evaluation and feedback but an exciting way of developing content that can provide a very useful insight into wards, procedures and experiences at Leeds Children’s Hospital.”
The project will be formally launched on Tuesday 17 May by Leeds Teaching Hospitals Chief Executive Julian Hartley together with other special guests.
A significant number of films have already been made ahead of the launch of the project, and these will be added to in the coming year to create a really useful resource about the work of Leeds Children’s Hospital and what our young patients think. They can be found on the following website: www.lchtv.com
