Children's Hospital

Published to tie in with an eight-part BBC1 series, this book looks at the day-to-day life of those involved with the Children's Hospital in Sheffield. The people encountered include porters, admission staff, caterers and car-park attendants, as well as the paediatricians, social workers and nurses, and the patients' parents, to whom the hospital becomes a second home where families can eat, play and even sleep together. Children are transported to their operations on a Thomas the Tank Engine trolley, the walls are covered in paintings, and play specialists are employed to keep the patients amused and informed of what is happening to them, so that fear is seldom encountered. The courage and experiences of the children are recorded in their own words and pictures, and fact-boxes on childhood illnesses accompany the profiles and stories to offer a positive guide for children and parents involved in hospital treatment.