Jess Tyley, Marketing Director at Westcoast said “As a local business Westcoast is pleased to be able to support the Royal Berks Charity in making this project come to life. We hope the new children’s playroom will make being in hospital a little more enjoyable for the young patients and their families for many years to come.”
The paediatric team, led by matron Claire Lord, have a clear vision that will revolutionise the current play area to better utilise the space on the paediatric wards to cater for younger patients and improve their hospital experience.
Claire says “We are incredibly grateful to Westcoast for their amazing donation and would like to say a huge thank you to them for helping to make our vision become a reality.
The playroom is around 20 years old so as you might imagine is fairly dated, old fashioned and in desperate need of modernising. Our goal is to create a welcoming space where young patients can relax and forget about the routine of being in hospital. We want to provide a less clinical and more homely environment; the play area is considered a ‘safe’ zone away from clinical treatment, and we want to ensure it is inviting and immersive.”
Lion and Dolphin ward at the Royal Berkshire Hospital is a 44-bed acute paediatric ward which cares for children and young people 0-16 years of age with a family centred approach who have a variety of medical and surgical conditions including ENT, orthopaedic and shared care oncology. On average, the team on Lion and Dolphin care for 80 new patients every week.
Young patients on these wards can have complex needs; including children with cancer or mental health problems, which means they could stay with us for up to 6 months depending on their situation, and those with longer term health needs could potentially be with us for years with many admissions.
Westcoast was founded almost 40 years ago by its current chairman Joe Hemani and has been family-owned ever since. With a Group turnover of over GBP 5 billion, 200 technology partners and retail partners with a total of 40,000 PoS, the company is the largest IT distributor in the United Kingdom and at the same time the fastest growing family-run IT company. Westcoast is consistently ranked in the Sunday Times Top Track of the 100 Largest Privately-owned UK Companies, and is the largest privately-held business in the Thames Valley region. Leading IT brands such as Microsoft, HP, Dell, Lenovo, Meta, Google, Samsung and Apple work with Westcoast Group as their distribution partner. Westcoast has a presence in Great Britain, Ireland, Germany and France and furthermore operates its own data centre and also its own logistics centres in Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The company puts its focus on the cloud, workplace and security business.
