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'Landmark' patient hotel for sick kids one step closer

Matty EdwardsBristol
Grand Appeal Wallace and Gromit stand next to a man and a woman on the construction site. Wallace is holding the commemorative brick. Grand Appeal
Wallace and Gromit presented a commemorative brick, which read: "A first for the UK, a lifeline for families"

The opening of the UK's first purpose-built patient hotel for sick children is one step closer after the foundations were poured, with the help of Wallace and Gromit.

The 12-bed unit will be just off Southwell Street in Bristol - near the Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI) and Bristol Children's Hospital - for children who need treatment after leaving hospital and their families.

It will be named the Jingle Jam Building after the charity gaming event, which has raised more than £2.6m for the project alongside hospital charity The Grand Appeal.

Nicola Masters, director of the Grand Appeal, said: "Seeing the foundations being poured is an incredibly exciting moment for this landmark project."

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The Jingle Jam Building will support children with a range of needs, including patients undergoing rehab following serious injuries or surgeries, and children who need daily input from dieticians and speech and language therapists.

There will be 12 en-suite rooms, a communal kitchen, laundry and lounge areas, as well as therapy and gym spaces and a garden.

The concept of patient hotels, which originated in Sweden, is to free up hospital beds taken up by people who no longer need one but can't get adequate care at home.

The new step down facility will be located next to St Michael's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which only of its kind in the South West that cares for more than 800 premature and critically-ill babies a year.

Inspire Architects Concept image of what the hotel will look like. It is a four storey building, which is four windows wide. There is also a smaller two storey annex adjoined on the left hand side. Flower beds with colourful blue and pink flowers can be seen with a pavement outside with people walking along. The exterior of the building is stoneclad on the ground floor, and then red brick on the upper floors. A large white building can be seen to the right hand side but has no distinctive details.Inspire Architects
The Grand Appeal has raised more than £2.6m through the charity gaming event Jingle Jam

Kate Hill, whose daughter Sofia was in the Bristol Children's Hospital, previously said that a patient hotel would have made an "enormous difference" by allowing Sofia to see her friends and brothers more easily.

She said it would have allowed much-needed "moments of normality" during the intense physiotherapy required to recover from a rare aneurysm in her spine that left her paralysed.

After demolition and preparatory works began in February. the main construction can begin.

To celebrate the milestone, Wallace and Gromit visited the site to present a special commemorative brick to the construction team.

Masters said: "For years, we've listened to staff and parents and heard about children who are well enough to leave an acute ward but still need regular therapy and specialist support. This pioneering development is our answer."

Rich Keith, Jingle Jam chair of trustees, said: "It's incredibly special to see the Jingle Jam Building beginning to take shape."

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