The welfare of our patients is our primary concern. There can be no better care and reassurance than for a child to know that their parent is right beside them.
It is vital that we help children and families cope with what can inevitably be a stressful time when visiting hospital. For this reason patient and family support is very important to us.
Graham and Ciaran’s story
With more than 50 per cent of our UK patients coming from outside London, it’s vital that we can provide accommodation for families.
Ciaran and his father Graham are just one family to benefit from these facilities. Ciaran was given a kidney transplant at the hospital in 1999 which lasted for 10 years.
Unfortunately in 2010 his kidney started to fail so he returned to the hospital to start a programme of dialysis.
Travelling from Coventry three times a week was tough for both Ciaran and his father Graham, nearing the end of his service in the Armed Forces.
With the help of new technology available, it was decided to make home dialysis available to Ciaran.
However, with this greater freedom comes increased responsibility on the family to ensure it’s administered properly. To enable Ciaran and his dad to undertake the training required they spent a number of weeks in patient accommodation at Weston House. This, as Graham describes, was vital for the family.
“The flat in Weston House became a home from home. Providing a nice family environment that allowed Ciaran and myself to relax in between the dialysis was crucial.
The sense of normality granted by having our own self contained flat which allowed Ciaran to carry on his homework as well as enjoying his free time made the training much more comfortable.
Being based just a stone’s throw away from the fantastic nurses rather than a two hour drive also provided much needed peace of mind.
Without this accommodation I don’t know how we would have coped”.
