Heartbeat

On Wednesday 14 May Southampton Hospital Charity officially presented a new retrieval ambulance to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Southampton General Hospital.

The new state-of-the-art ambulance will provide a key service for hundreds of sick children across the area, transferring them from other hospitals to the PICU at Southampton.

Peter Wilson, Director of PICU said, "We are extremely grateful to all those who have contributed to this project. We are going to be able to considerably improve patient care with this new addition and it will mean that we can get to critically ill children quicker, bring them back to the unit more quickly and therefore provide immediate care."

The dedicated ambulance, which contains specialist equipment for children requiring intensive care ‘on the move,' includes a portable ventilator and high specification monitoring equipment as well as other key medical instruments and machinery.

Two PICU families have contributed considerably to the £100,000 target by organising fundraising events and activities: Loraine and Andy Parsons from Bournemouth, whose son Alfie was cared for in PICU and Sean and Claire Garrett from Waterlooville whose son Freddie was also looked after. PICU are also grateful to The Albion Trust who made a considerable contribution to the overall cost of the ambulance.

The charity would also like to thank the many individual, company and charity donors who have made this purchase possible including: Friends of PICU, Henderson Green, Hill McGlynn, Matchtech, NTL Group, Pebble Beach Restaurant, The Wessex Heartbeat Charity, veteran fundraiser Aurelio Bello and the countless other contributors from across the region.