Young people involved in planning the new Cambridge Children’s Hospital (CCH) were delighted to meet The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge last week.
The teenagers spent time explaining the ground-breaking plans to integrate mental and physical health in the East of England’s first specialist children’s hospital.
Hannah, Olina, Alisha, Macie and Sarah were part of the Children’s Hospital team at the Cambridgeshire County Day, held in Newmarket on Thursday (23rd June), which celebrated the county and formed part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge spent time on the CCH stand, which also featured an experiment demonstrating the link between mind and body, arts activities and a model of the building.
Children and young people have been an integral part of the hospital project since early 2021 and have been involved in shaping the designs of the hospital and the plans to integrate mental and physical health.
It was an incredible and surreal experience to meet The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and we were so happy to talk to them about the hospital. They were so lovely.
Alisha
“It is amazing to be part of the Cambridge Children’s Hospital project, for this opportunity and all the other brilliant ways we have been involved in the project so far," Alisha added.
There are more than 500 members of the Cambridge Children’s Network, who have taken part in many activities, from workshops with the architects, creating videos interviewing clinicians involved in the project, and attending Project meetings.
Project Director Alex White said: “We were very pleased to take part in the first Cambridgeshire County Day. It was great for the team to have the opportunity to talk to many people about our unique vision for the hospital and to share the hospital plans and designs. We are also extremely grateful to the organisers for making the hospital one of two beneficiaries of the day.”
Cambridge Children’s Hospital will be the first in the UK to integrate mental and physical health and was granted planning permission from Cambridge City Council in March. The project is a partnership between Cambridge University Hospitals, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Cambridge.
The next stage for the CCH project is to submit the Outline Business Case to the Department for Health and Social Care and NHSE/I, which is due to happen in autumn.
