‘A space with a soul’: children’s ideas help transform Glasgow hospital unit

Murals, colourful chairs and fairy lights help create a mood that is more soft play than pre-theatre at Royal Hospital for Children

“When I was last here, there was nothing much to cheer you up,” says 10-year-old Joseph Hay, perusing the intricate mural that now dominates one wall of the operating theatres unit at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow. Joseph, who has undergone numerous procedures here after being diagnosed with bone marrow failure, remembers most of all the apprehension of the general anaesthetic. “You’re just waiting for the moment. This wasn’t a place you’d really want to be at all.”

But now, the largest paediatric theatre unit in Scotland “doesn’t even feel like a hospital”, as Joseph joins other former patients and their families to inspect the million-pound transformation they have helped to bring about in a unique collaboration between children and creatives, the first of its kind in the country.