New family seating installed at Glasgow’s Royal Hospital for Children as Covid-19 protection

When the hospital was built, the RHC atrium had seating rows of six, seven and eight seats.

That was fine before Covid, but last year, when Outpatient Clinics started to increase again, a solution needed to be found.

‘Longer term solution’

Mhairi Fitzharris, interim outpatients’ manager, said: “In many public areas we are now used to seeing chairs ‘blanked out’ or covered up for social distancing reasons. Our atrium is such a bright and exciting place for our patients, we wanted to find a better –and longer term –solution.

“The answer was to reduce the seating numbers, while giving parents and carers the chance to sit with their child while waiting for a clinic. The new banks for three seats were found to be the perfect solution and the feedback we are getting is really positive. The investment totalled £10,000.

“It also frees up space in the atrium and there’s plenty of room to move around. The new seating also has ample space for wheelchairs too.”

Popular change

The atrium is already known for its colourful interior and the new seats – in green, orange, purple, blue and pink – just adds to the fun theme.

Carolyne Moretti recently visited the RHC with her niece Lola Johnstone (9).

She said: “We liked the new seats and they allowed us to keep our distance from others around. Lola likes all the fun activities in the Outpatients area and even makes friends there.”