"Ninewells Kids Ward"

The doctors, nurses and support staff who work in Ninewells kids departments are fantastic & the care my son receives from them is excellent.

However, the actually experience of having to stay in Ward 29 is not good. My son is a teenager with cancer, which means we unfortunately have to stay in hospital quite often. We are in a side room which he is usually not able to leave due to risk of infection & he is hooked up to an IV. I realise Ninewells is an old hospital but a few simple changes would make staying here much better.

- the rooms are incredibly dark & gloomy. The blinds do not open in any of the side rooms we have been in, meaning there is no natural light coming in, this would surely be something that could be fixed easily,

The rooms are horrible red, green & yellow colours with random stickers on the wall - if they were just painted white they would be so much better.

- there are mirrors on the wall opposite the beds - a kid with cancer does not want to sit up in bed and see themselves often with no hair & looking ill.

- the TV's don't work.

-The WIFI is awful. It is very sporadic and unreliable. As a teenager, having WIFI is essential. My son will sit happily on his xbox at home chatting to his friends for hours. This isn't possible when he is in hospital because even if we take his xbox with us, the WIFI is so bad he can't connect with his friends. I have spoken to the hospital about this and they said various things have been tried in the past but haven't really made much difference - surely there must be a solution - something like a satellite internet system?

When my son is in hospital he is feeling rubbish anyway, but all these reasons listed above makes taking him to hospital something we all dread. I feel guilty taking him to hospital knowing he is going to be even more miserable :( I hope someone reads this and tries to help with some of the points because spending days at a time in ward 29 has a very negative impact on the mental health of my son.