A Whole New Way

The Whole Picture

This year has seen the Cambridge Children’s Hospital project gain great momentum. There have been many achievements during the last twelve months, as we continue to develop the first dedicated children’s hospital for the East of England.

At the beginning of the year we appointed an international design team. We end the year with designs that give an early indication of what this innovative hospital might look when it opens in 2025. The plans that were submitted with our planning application to Cambridge City Council in September also included details of possible future development for the hospital beyond 2025. Seeing these artist impressions for the first time was a real milestone and, for us all, a very exciting moment. You can see some of the images below and read more on our website here.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the design team and the members of our Cambridge Children’s Network who have contributed so much to the design process. Thank you for the time you gave, for making us think differently and for sharing your lived experiences of being in hospital, so we can make Cambridge Children's Hospital (CCH) a better and brighter place.

We are very proud of the progress we have made as a CCH team, especially during such a challenging year for the NHS, and couldn’t have done it without our incredible staff. From the members of our Staff Reference Group, to the team working on how to integrate mental and physical health, everyone has played a really important role.

Please watch our short animation which shows just some of our work in 2021:

As the New Year approaches, we look forward to carrying this momentum into 2022, with work continuing on the way we’ll use technology in the hospital, what our school provision will look like and the final floor plans. Most importantly, we will be submitting the Outline Business Case to NHS England and NHS Improvement, which is another big step in the development of CCH.

I wish you a happy and healthy end to the year.
Alex

A word from our lead clinical nurses

 As nurses, who have worked frontline with children, young people and their families, the chance to play a part in building a new children’s hospital from scratch is a great privilege. But we aren’t working alone.

 Despite their busy workloads, staff from across our partner organisations – Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, and the University of Cambridge - have come together to share their thoughts, based on their professional lived experience, on how the hospital should be designed to best care for our patients. Hundreds of staff have joined hospital design sessions, looking at individual clinical areas and multi-use areas. Their input has directly influenced the early-stage designs. How the hospital design works in clinical practice is central to all our thinking. We need to ensure that the design and clinical adjacencies (which areas are located next to each other in the hospital) work for everyone - children, young people, their families, staff and visitors - to ensure safety, quality and effectiveness.

 What will make Cambridge Children’s Hospital unique is that it will bring mental and physical healthcare together in a way that’s never been done before. This is called an Integrated Model of Care. The potential for new integrated ways of working is incredibly exciting, but can bring with it challenges. As we work towards our ambitious ‘whole child’ vision, the ‘whole workforce’ is key to achieving this, alongside patients and their families.

 There is so much to consider and so much we need to get right. We are hugely grateful to all the staff who are giving up their time to join us on this exciting journey.

• If you are a member of staff or a healthcare professional, visit our website to see how you can get involved in Cambridge Children's.