EDINBURGH.- A number of charity funded arts projects are underway at the new Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh.

Work on the hospital began in March and the new £150 million co-located building will see services from the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services brought together in a modern and high-quality setting at Little France.

The project is the first acute hospital facility to be procured under the Scottish Government’s Non Profit Distributing model and will be delivered as a standalone new build on the existing site of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

Appointed by NHS Lothian, Integrated Health Solutions Lothian, a consortium comprising Brookfield Multiplex, architect HLM, investor Macquarie Capital Group, and Bouygues E&S FM UK, will design, build and maintain the new hospital.

The arts projects form part of the Art and Therapeutic Design commissioning programme which has been developed through collaboration with both IHSL and NHS project teams. HLM is working directly alongside the Sick Kids Friends Foundation and The Edinburgh & Lothians Health Foundation, together with arts co-ordinating company Ginkgo Projects, to enhance various aspects of the building’s interior design.

A number of artists including Peter Marigold, Kevan Shaw Lighting Design and Dress for the Weather have been appointed to install a series of works within the building, ranging from enhancing the bedside environment for patients, considering various items of soft furniture, specialist lighting design and various tactile play areas and interactive panels for the kids to get actively involved in.

A key element will be a stone wall linking the external landscape and internal atrium spaces into which an art work will be cast by Marigold following consultation with children and user groups.

Lorraine Robertson, Associate Director Scotland, and Project Director at HLM, said: “This is a significant development that will help shape the future of health care in Edinburgh and the Lothians.

“The combined building will bring together both outpatient and inpatient facilities for paediatric care, specialist neonatal care, neurosciences and adult and children’s emergency departments together on one site to create a centre of excellence.

“There are significant benefits of having children’s, maternity and adult services on the same site and the proximity to the University of Edinburgh Medical School and the Bio-Quarter will improve opportunities for partnership working and bring research to the bedside.

“The ATD programme will help enhance the experience of patients as they navigate the physical and emotional experience of arrival, waiting, treatment and staying in hospital”.

The hospital is scheduled to become operational in the summer of 2017.