Crumlin Children's Hospital Volunteer Day

Over the past few months, a Rotary campaign has been under way to raise funds to support the refurbishment of the Parents Accommodation Unit at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin. The campaign has gathered considerable pace with numerous Rotary clubs from all over Ireland coming onboard and pledging to sponsor a room.

The hospital is the largest paediatric hospital in Ireland and is the only hospital for paediatric cardiac surgical procedures serving both Northern and Southern Ireland. Each year, almost 500 children and babies receive life saving cardiac care in the Children’s Heart Centre with over 150 of these children coming from Northern Ireland.

The Parents Accommodation Unit offers 48 bedrooms and living spaces to parents of sick children whilst they are being treated in the hospital. The unit is within the main hospital building allowing parents to stay close to their child and is often the only viable option for parents who live beyond the Dublin area. In the sixties, the unit served as sleeping quarters for student nurses in the 60s and 70s but unfortunately the decor has not changed. The rooms are small and very run down. Windows are over 60 years old and do not seal resulting in noisy, cold and damp rooms in the winter.

Rotary has been working closely with the hospital to agree a timeline and a fundraising target that will allow the rooms to be modernised on a phase by phase basis ensuring the maximum number of rooms are available for parents at all time. The next phase is scheduled to begin soon and the hospital have exclusively offered Rotary the opportunity to provide volunteers on Saturday the 9th of April who will assist in clearing out 15 rooms in preparation for the commencement of renovations.