£400k pledged by business community to hospital’s new £1m appeal

Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity has launched its latest appeal – the £1m MediCinema Appeal – to build and run a fully accessible cinema inside the hospital, which will provide respite from the wards and improve wellbeing for both long and short-term patients and their families. 

Every year, the hospital cares for 100,000 of the UK’s sickest kids.

Of its 40,000 annual inpatients, over 7,200 (approx. 20 per cent) stay for up to three consecutive weeks, with just under 700 having to stay even longer.

These lengthy stays can impact an entire family’s physical and mental health, with patients often feeling isolated from their parents, siblings and friends.

Bringing the magic of the movies to the hospital through a shared cinema space will create positive experiences for thousands of patients and their families every year and at no cost to them or the NHS. 

This new facility is a partnership between Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity and MediCinema, a charity which builds and operates cinemas screening the latest films in hospitals across the UK.

According to MediCinema’s ongoing research, 93 per cent of attendees say visiting the MediCinema reduces stress and anxiety and 94 per cent say it reduces the isolation felt in hospital. 

And 91 per cent said it helped people to cope and supported their mental health. 

A total of £1m needs to be raised to make the cinema and its initial running costs a reality.

Thanks to pledges of over £400,000 from Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity’s visionary network of Changemakers – made up of some of the region’s top business leaders, companies and entrepreneurs – there’s just £600,000 left to raise in partnership with MediCinema.

The Children’s Hospital Charity has launched a public fundraising campaign, while MediCinema will be drawing on some funding support from its existing long-term partners.  

The MediCinema will be housed in the hospital’s current lecture theatre, a non-clinical space, which will be converted to become a state-of-the-art cinema during evenings and weekends, while remaining as a place for staff training and education during the day. 

The cinema will be complete with 63 purpose-made, movie-style seats and is designed specially to accommodate wheelchairs, hospital beds and medical equipment to ensure as many patients as possible can access the screenings.

Once complete, it will be the largest MediCinema in operation, expecting to provide around 260 screenings per annum and putting smiles on the faces of an estimated 5,000 attendees every year. 

Daljit Athwal, chief nurse and midwifery officer at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The inclusion of a cinema within our hospital will help reduce feelings of isolation and benefit patient recovery rates, bringing a little bit of magic to their stay, enabling them to create positive lifelong memories of their time spent in hospital.  

“The cinema will create an opportunity for the whole family to come together for a shared experience, with nursing staff on hand to deliver any care needed. It will also allow our children to stay connected with their peers, ensuring they don’t miss out on the latest releases just because they’re sick.”    

It is anticipated building work on the MediCinema will start at the end of October and will take approximately eight to 12 weeks to complete. 

The cinema will be supported by MediCinema’s central team, who oversee operations and programming and deliver official film-themed activities to transform the hospital experience for patients. 

To find out more about the hospital’s MediCinema Appeal, or to donate, please visit the website.

Pictured: CGI image of the new MediCinema at Birmingham Children’s Hospital