Free hotel is checked in for Sick Kids plans

Published on Wednesday 18 March 2009 09:06

A FREE hotel for families will be created next to the new Sick Kids Hospital at Little France, it has been revealed.

The building will allow relatives to relax close to the hospital while their child receives treatment.

Funded by six charities, including the 15 million Evening News-backed New Pyjamas hospital campaign, it will be used both by families from Edinburgh as well as the many who come from across Scotland and the UK for specialist care.

The news comes on the back of the announcement that every room in the new hospital will have an additional bed for a relative, carer or sibling to stay in, meaning families will have far more options than ever before.

It has also emerged that local businesses will be encouraged to sponsor each bed at the new hospital, due to be up and running beside the ERI by 2012.

Elaine McGonigle, the director of the New Pyjamas campaign, said the hotel would feature a range of other facilities.

She said: "The new family hotel at the new Sick Kids hospital – and the additional facilities of a drop-in centre and other supportive services – will be the result of collaborative work between six key charities.

"They are the New Pyjamas campaign, Ronald McDonald House, CLIC Sargent, SNIP, Trefoil House, Teenage Cancer Trust and the Snowball Trust.

"In the current economic climate, there is a pressing need not only to deliver much needed services but to do so in a creative and innovative way.

"At the New Pyjamas campaign, we welcome the prospect of working together with other charities to demonstrate the benefits to patients and their families of partnership working between charities."

It was revealed last year that the Scottish Government had approved a business case to shift the hospital from the ageing but much-loved Sciennes building within five years.

Holyrood is paying around 50m, with more than that equivalent coming from the sale of land at the current hospital, which is bound to attract developers given the attractive listed structures and salubrious surroundings.

The New Pyjamas Campaign – which runs alongside the current Sick Kids Friends Foundation appeals – aims to provide additional research and pioneering equipment which wouldn't be included in NHS or Scottish Government budgets.

The research will see the Sick Kids link up with research staff at the proposed BioQuarter at Little France, which will also begin to take shape over the next few years.

Campaign organisers also said a healthy research budget would entice some of the world's best paediatric surgeons and consultants to the Capital.