“I really want to get sick,” says the schoolgirl walking in front of me.
The primary school pupil is part of a group of youngsters being given a sneak peek inside the new Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (RHCYP) in Edinburgh – and she is clearly impressed.
The new hospital will open its doors on July 9, replacing the historic sick kids hospital on the city’s Sciennes Road, which has been treating children since 1895.
In comparison to the old hospital, with its red brickwork and ornate façade, the new £150 million state-of-the-art building at Little France offers families bright and spacious purpose-built facilities.
READ MORE: Staff gather for farewell to Edinburgh Sick Kids Hospital as it prepares to close
The impressive “pod” waiting area inside the hospital features large-scale cut out graphics depicting magical images of Edinburgh, as well as various activities and digital technology to keep children occupied while they wait to be seen.
Designed by Edinburgh artist Emily Hogarth, the cut-outs feature Edinburgh Castle as a sleeping dragon, the Scott Monument as a rocket that lights up and the penguins of Edinburgh Zoo out on parade.
And it is this part of the hospital that has captured the attention of the visiting schoolchildren.
Chloe Short, 10, with clinical director Janice MacKenzie.
Ms Hogarth said: “We’ve tried to create a magical Edinburgh, it represents our city but from a child’s view.
“There are lots of little things that kids can find, the adults might walk past them, but when kids start fiddling, they’ll find them.
“It’s really to try to make it a magical experience for them and hopefully make them forget why they’re here.”
Those little touches include various spy holes dotted around the installations, including one which features a little bagpiper playing a tune – only to be crushed by a giant foot at the end of his song.
There are also several pieces of bespoke furniture dotted around the waiting area, with quirky cushions and mats – looking like fish and baked beans – scattered around.
Ms Hogarth said creating the installations proved to be a very emotional job as she is a mother-of-three who has visited the old hospital with her own children.
“I’m Edinburgh born and bred so it was quite an emotional job to get, especially when you’ve got children as well, and everyone’s had to go to the sick kids at some point.
“My daughter had a wee operation on her teeth when she was little, so you just want to make sure you do as good a job as you can.
“For me I just really want to make sure that the kids find it as magical as I hoped it would be.”
There is a great deal of attention to detail in the new hospital, from the “spine wall” – a wall made to look like skin – to art installations in the wards linking the old hospital with the new.
READ MORE: Those were the days - 1971: Yorkhill sick kids’ opens new out-patient department
The £5m funding for the artwork and the pod waiting area was made up of donations from Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity and the Edinburgh and Lothians Health Foundation.
The hospital contains 13 wards and 242 beds, with beds for parents neatly tucked away in cupboards beside almost every patient bed.
Patients and staff will begin to be transferred to the new site on July 5th, while the emergency department will open its doors at 8am on July 9.
The new site will also house Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and the Department of Clinical Neurosciences.
Tim Davison, chief executive of NHS Lothian, said the opening had been “a long time coming” but described the hospital as a “special place”.
“We recognise that for children and for their parents coming to hospital can be a very stressful experience and that’s why we’ve tried to make it look and feel as good as possible,” he said.
He added that the new hospital forms part of a strategic plan by the health board to turn the Little France site – which also houses Edinburgh Royal infirmary – into a major trauma centre which can deal with the most critically injured patients. From buggy parks and playful installations in waiting rooms to pull out beds for parents on almost every ward, the hospital is designed to make both the child’s and the parent’s experience in hospital as straightforward as possible.
There are playrooms on every ward and access to outdoor space with swings and gardens to explore, while for close family members, there is also a 25-room hotel nearby.
All of this has, of course, come at a substantial price and the build has been plagued by a string of setbacks, including flooding and delays due to poor weather.
But looking at the building now, and all the extra touches designed to ease the suffering of children and their families, it is hard to argue that the new hospital is not a well thought-out, impressive space which appears to have been built with compassion.
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