'New Sick Kids will be a home from home for my patients'

Published on Friday 8 May 2009 10:09

ATHICK layer of dust covers the window pane, there are piles of medical books and a collection of photos roughly pinned in a giant collage on the wall, while teddy bears and cuddly toys lie scattered in the corner.

This is not an office which screams world-renowned doctor.

But then this is the office of Dr Hamish Wallace, consultant paediatric oncologist at Edinburgh's Sick Kids hospital – hero to many grateful parents, friend to his young patients and, as if that's not enough, a driving force in a fundraising campaign to give the Capital one of the best children's hospitals in the world.

Today, the dust, the noise of drilling from outside and shouts from builders as they tramp along the scaffolding outside his window, is nothing to do with work on a new Sick Kids. Instead it is simply the result of stonework of the listed

Sciennes building near where he works being blasted clean.

Yet there is a certain irony in the building work – because moves are already under way for the massive building project which will deliver the Capital a new Sick Kids by 2012.

To support the move, the New Pyjamas initiative – a 15 million fundraising drive for additional research and equipment – has been launched, and Dr Wallace, 51, is its most distinguished champion.

It might be difficult to find anyone more suitable or passionate for the task. For while all the advantages of up-to-date medical technology which the new Sick Kids will have are important to Dr Wallace, what really rouses his passions is talking about the children themselves.

"What some people forget is when a child comes into hospital it is absolutely bloody terrifying," he says in a very un-doctor-like way.

"It is important that they are happy and have their dignity in what is probably the hardest time of their life.

"I've been to many (paediatric] hospitals in America which are clinically first-rate and have absolutely everything, but are completely soulless and not in the least bit welcoming, they just don't have that something the Sick Kids has," he says, as he gazes through the dusty window at the scaffolding poles outside.

"It is so important that the Sick Kids doesn't lose its identity, that it retains its homely, welcoming feel when it moves to this wonderful new space.

"It's a hospital for children, and the building and ambience has to reflect that. It has to keep all the many things that make it such a special place.

"Will we save more lives at the new hospital? I don't know the answer to that yet, but it will certainly present an opportunity for great progress."

While he holds considerable affection for the current hospital at Sciennes, he knows more than anyone that it is no longer a suitable option for the 21st century.

"I have been here since 1992 and we are all very fond of this very old Victorian hospital – it's like a house – but it is not fit for purpose, everyone accepts that," he says.

The fact he remains in his friendly office while work goes on around him backs up his belief about atmosphere; that it is as equally important to the practical elements.

But he's by no means office-bound, and walks around the wards on a daily basis and can see the embarrassment and social discomfort on the faces of particularly older children, who sometimes have to share wards with youngsters ten years their junior.

Solitary rooms are in such high demand that those who really want them – for example a teenage girl recovering from an operation – aren't always able to access them. Washing facilities aren't up to scratch either.

Other patients who contract infections – even something as mild as chickenpox – have to be whisked away to other hospitals to prevent passing it on, causing disruption to their own planned treatment.

"Families find that quite difficult when it happens, but this won't happen at the new place," Dr Wallace stresses. "We will have the isolation facilities available and that will be a huge advance.

"Even basic things like washing facilities will be improved, they are very poor at the hospital just now. The patients will just have more of a sense of their own space and privacy, it's going to be fantastic.

"The family hotel (a free hotel attached to the new Sick Kids for family of patients] will be great thing because for many whose children are in long term, from all over the country, it can become a home from home for them. The benefits of a school in the hospital speaks for itself, and with technology linking computers to schools themselves, patients will essentially be able to go to school even when in hospital."

Certainly if anyone understands the agonies faced by sick children and their families, it's him.

He was working as a senior registrar at Great Ormond Street when football star Gary Lineker – England captain at the time – and his then wife Michelle endured the nightmare of watching little George fight leukaemia.

Their friendship was confirmed when, in 1998, the sports star came to Edinburgh to open a 'home from home' facility at Hatton Place for families of children undergoing leukaemia and cancer treatment, as a special favour to the medic.

Lineker said at the time of Dr Wallace: "He was a rock for us."

But the high-profile player is just one of hundreds of parents who have reason to thank the doctor.

For those who come to him in the future, there will be the comfort of knowing they are not only in the best hands possible – and in the best facilities.

The Evening News revealed last year that the business case for the new 150m hospital had been approved and would be open by 2012.

It was welcomed overwhelmingly, even by those who hold the impressive current building in high regard but appreciate it has run its course as a children's hospital.

One of the clearest medical benefits at Little France will undoubtedly be the locality to virtually every piece of equipment needed to treat youngsters.

As it stands, some have to be transferred all around the country for certain treatments, but with the proximity of the ERI to the new hospital, this will no longer be necessary.

Samples for testing will no longer have to be sent long distances, reducing the possibility of damage or items going missing.

"It's about always making things better," he concludes. "We've come a long way since the 1960s, and this new hospital is something that's been fought for for some time. I'm fully confident it will be a tremendous asset."

CAMPAIGN'S 15m TARGET

THE New Pyjamas Campaign is an arm of the Sick Kids Friends Foundation which aims to raise at least 15 million before the hospital opens.

The charity's goal is to provide cutting edge equipment which wouldn't otherwise be paid for on the NHS to reaffirm its reputation as a world-class hospital.

Some additional research will also be funded, with the campaign organisers saying that the better research tools available, the more prestigious consultants and medics will want to come to Edinburgh to be involved.

Over the next three years a range of innovative fundraising initiatives will be launched, and the campaign has already built up a significant following online with its specially created social networking site.

Elaine McGonigle, the New Pyjamas director, says support from the likes of Dr Wallace was crucial to the bid.

She says: "Hamish Wallace is an inspiring individual and committed professional: the work he does with young people is humbling and makes such a positive difference in their lives.

"We are fortunate to have his support for the new pyjamas campaign as he knows just how important it is for us to raise the 15m we need.

"With that we can ensure that the new hospital is supplied with the cutting edge equipment and support facilities that all young people in Scotland, their families and their carers, need and deserve."

&#149 www.newpyjamas.org

&#149 www.nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk