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History
History of the Foundation
The Sick Kids Friends Foundation was formed in late 1992 following the successful £11m TASK Appeal to raise funds for the building of a new wing at the hospital. It was formed by combining the Friends of the Royal Hospital and the TASK Appeal Committee into a new Scottish charity reg No SC020862 and brought together members of staff from the hospital, parents of patients and committed volunteers from the business community. It has grown from raising £300,000 per annum to the current level of around £1.5 million.
Its purpose is to provide extra funding in addition to NHS provision in 4 main areas:
- extra comforts for sick children being cared for at the hospital and in the community
- extra state of the art medical equipment
- extra family and child-friendly facilities
- extra training and research
Milestones have included:
- 1997 Provision of the Family Support Centre and Chapel
- 1999 Provision of the first CT Scanner at the hospital
- 2000 Replacement of the gamma camera
- 2003 Provision of PJ's Loft parent accommodation
- 2004 Provision of OR1 Operating Theatre system
- 2006 Establishment of the Drop In Centre
- 2007 replacement of the CT Scanner with a new state of the art model
About the hospital
The Royal Hospital for Sick Children was built on its present site in Sciennes Road, Edinburgh in 1895 and opened by Princess Beatrice, granddaughter of Queen Victoria. It was the first children's hospital in Scotland.
Nowadays it serves patients from throughout the East of Scotland and provides specialist services for the 100,000 children who come through the doors every year and provides a broad spectrum of specialist care.
The Paediatric Intensive Care unit shares the operation of the Retrieval service for the whole of Scotland along with Yorkhill Children's Hospital in Glasgow , bringing seriously ill children to the hospital from district general children's wards for Intensive Care. The hospital is also home to the Scoliosis service for the whole of Scotland.
There are over 900 staff based at the hospital.
Building a new hospital
The present hospital is now 115 years old and although a lovely building, does not provide the best environment for 21st century healthcare for children.
NHS Lothian is currently working on plans for the replacement hospital for Children and Young People which will open at Little France in 2013.
