Parents of seriously-ill patients at Birmingham Children’s Hospital will be moving into a city hotel this week as their “home from home” is to be bulldozed to make way for a £7 million Ronald McDonald House.

Edward House, run by Edgbaston-based charity Edward’s Trust, is being vacated and its eight staff will be made redundant after they’ve helped move 30 or so families into rooms at the Thistle Hotel on St Chad’s Queensway.

Bulldozers are set raze the 33-bedroom centre next month to make way for a six-storey 60-bed purpose-built home, which critics claim will offer little more than “well equipped accommodation” to relatives who spend weeks and months away from home while their sons or daughters undergo treatment or operations at the hospital.

The Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC), which already have 12 accommodations across the UK, had been due to submit their initial planning application a fortnight ago but now hope to hand in their proposal by August 8.

The Children’s Hospital signed a 12-month contract with Thistle Hotels to provide 30 twin rooms over two floors, along with catering and laundry facilities, to ensure relatives have somewhere to stay during what is often a traumatic time.

Christine Bodkin, chief executive of Edward’s Trust, had hoped the existing accommodation block would be extended following talks with trust bosses last year, but instead the trust favoured a larger facility proposed by RMHC.

Charity bosses also promised £500,000 per annum funding, over 30 years, to cover the new home’s running and staff costs.

Ms Bodkin said: “All the families who come and stay with us, for however long, all have a very strong relationship with Edward House. Some of these families need counselling but all of them need supportive care which I doubt if nurses have the time to provide one-on-one over a cup of tea, what with all the other medical and care demands put on them.

“It’s going to be a very difficult day for all the families, whether their children are seriously ill, whether they’re first time visitors unaware of the changes or regular stayers who are losing their home from home.

“We’ve welcomed more than 4,000 families to Edward House since it opened here in 1998, and the thank-you letters we receive always mention the care they receive rather than the room they stayed in, so this will be a sad day for all involved.”

As well as comfortable accommodation, guests at Edward House were offered complimentary therapies and plenty of support, as well as the freedom to do their own cooking and laundry.

The hospital’s own Public and Patient Involvement Forum visited an RMHC house in Liverpool, which supports families of children at Alder Hey Hospital, last August and published its findings in December.

It stated: “The Ronald McDonald Foundation aims to provide convenient and well equipped accommodation to the families of children in hospital. It does not claim to do anything else.

“The ideal solution would be that RMF build the accommodation and that it is run by Edward’s Trust.

“Overall we would like to emphasise that we all feel very strongly that it would be a real waste of a unique facility if the services of the Edward’s Trust were lost to Birmingham Children’s Hospital.”

Families staying at the Thistle Hotel, popular with conference delegates and coach parties alike, will use the same main entrance as paying guests – who will mainly be unaware of the parents staying there.

Anne Roberts, RMHC’s head of operations and development, said: “We don’t offer any kind of counselling services, that’s RMHC policy, we think those sort of services are best provided by medical experts at the hospital.

“What we will be providing is that ‘friendly face’ families will want to see after stressful days or weeks on a ward, who will chat with them over a cup of tea to help them relax and unwind.

“We’ve not spoken to the families, that side of things has been handled by the trust, however we are looking at providing an open day for families and staff as soon as the house is ready, so they get an idea of what to expect when it opens.”

Andrew Hughes, the hospital’s chief commercial development officer, defended the move to relocate families to the Thistle Hotel.

“I think not having any accommodation would be a damn sight worse. We’re providing free of charge to parents and to the tax payer, accommodation in a four-star hotel, which is the closest hotel to the Children’s Hospital that we could find,” he said.

“There is a perception that Edward House is staffed by trained counsellors who have a level of counselling training, but in reality it is staffed by individuals who show a great deal of care and support towards the families, which I would say all our staff do anyway.”

* Edward House in St Mary’s Row, was officially opened on October 14, 1998 by one of the charity’s patrons, Julie Walters, although it had been open to guests since August 3, 1998.

It was set up to provide families of seriously ill children a refuge away from the hospital’s wards, particularly those who live outside Birmingham.

It has 33 bedrooms, each equipped with a telephone directly linked to the switchboard at the Children’s Hospital, giving parents and relatives peace of mind while taking a break at the house.

Run by a small but dedicated staff, families were encouraged to congregate in a dining room where, every afternoon at 4pm, staff provided home-made cakes and tea.

Christine Bodkin said: “That’s the purpose of the house, to put first the needs of parents and siblings, whilst the hospital puts first the needs of the sick child.

“They are often in as much need of advice and support as their children are, which is what we have always sought to provide.”

Younger visitors entertained themselves in the playroom and garden, while older siblings were able to play computer games or watch DVDs.
The conservatory was a good place to relax, watch television, read magazines or talk to friends. It opened out to a raised patio area overlooking the garden.

A resources room was added two years’ ago which provided parents with a well-stocked library of books, leaflets, CDs and DVDs about various paediatric conditions and procedures.

Guests can stay for a few days or weeks, with some staying months at a time, but they are able to do their own laundry and cooking, to enable them to maintain a ‘normal routine’ while away from their own home.

Edward’s Trust also runs the Sunrise Child Bereavement Service, based in Edgbaston, which will continue to help parents and siblings cope in the event of a loved one’s death.