This is another step to improve conditions in Polish hospitals
In July this year, an amendment to the Act came into force of 6 November 2008 on Patients’ Rights and the Ombudsman for Patients’ Rights. This means that from now on, hospitals cannot demand additional fees from parents for staying with their child in hospital, and above all, they are obliged to provide caregivers with decent conditions of stay. On the one hand, this is great news for young patients and their parents, and on the other hand, it is a real organizational and financial problem for hospitals.
Only some Polish paediatric wards are able to provide parents with relatively comfortable conditions of child care. There is simply not enough space for it. There is nowhere to stay overnight or prepare a meal. Not to mention the space to play with children outside the hospital room. This is where Budimex comes to the rescue, which for 6 years as part of the “Parent Zone. Budimex for Children” in hospitals all over Poland creates unique places. In the Parent Zones, the youngest patients and their caregivers can take a break from the hospital routine, drink coffee or play in a safe and specially designed space. In addition, as part of the Programme, Budimex often equips the facility with additional beds and armchairs necessary to stay with the child around the clock. – Each of the Parent Zones is adapted to the needs of a specific facility. Functionality and usability combined with the idea of the program is the starting point for the creation of the concept of the zone – emphasizes Katarzyna Wójcik from Budimex.
On 25 September, at the Specialist Hospital im. The 31st Parent Zone was opened in Krakow. In the Department of Paediatrics and Pediatric Neurology, there is a kitchenette with a place to rest for parents and an adjacent sensory playroom. The space is available 24 hours a day. This will make it easier for parents and neurological patients in particular, who have to wait late at night for tests. EEG tests often have to be carried out in the morning, after a sleepless night,” explains the head of the department, Dr. Med. Ryszard Konior. The use of the sensory zone will significantly facilitate the rehabilitation process, provide our young patients with tools to train balance, body feeling, concentration and motor coordination. It will also be a relaxation and calming zone for patients who perceive stimuli with greater intensity than they should. Attractive equipment of the sensory zone will diversify not only the exercises for children, but also the time spent in the hospital, it will certainly make them smile much more often – adds physiotherapist Agnieszka Utrata, MA. Budimex has also decided to equip the Department of Infectious Diseases and Paediatric Haematology with additional feeding chairs and reclining, comfortable sleeping chairs for parents.
The design of the Krakow Parent Zone was inspired by the fairy-tale night world of animals. In the sensory zone, there is a cozy house where you can hide from the world. The wall was covered with manipulative toys, and the installations and radiator were hidden behind the shadows of forest animals. A TV set hung on a tree, and soft armchairs stood right below it. The kitchenette is decorated in wood and navy blue colors, and thanks to the table and comfortable sofa, it looks more like a home kitchen than a hospital corridor. The homely atmosphere was also taken care of by a special guest: Darek Wardziak, a carpenter known from TV programs, who prepared handmade furniture for the dollhouse. As usual, volunteers from Budimex helped with the last arrangement works.
In the opening of the 31. The Parent Zone was attended by: Ms. Elżbieta Kois-Żurek, Director of the Department of Social Policy and Health of the Nicolaus Copernicus University, representatives of the hospital headed by the acting Director, Dr. hab.n.med. Stanisław Rumian and the head of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Neurology, Dr. Ryszard Koniorem, Mr Marcin Mazur – Regional Director of Budimex SA, volunteers from Budimex, parents and, above all, young patients. The children not only gave gifts from themselves and thanked on behalf of the youngest, but above all they tested the Zone and almost immediately started playing.
Budimex for children. Parent Zone
Creating more comfortable conditions for parents of sick children to stay with their children in hospital, and thus improving the well-being of children and facilitating their faster recovery is the main objective of the “Parent Zone” social programme implemented by Budimex SA. As part of the program, special zones for parents are separated in children’s wards of Polish hospitals. Depending on the needs and conditions in individual facilities, it may be arranging an unused room or a fragment of a corridor, equipping the hospital with an appropriate number of folding beds or sanitary facilities, or organizing a place to rest and play with children. The main objectives of the Parent Zone programme are: to provide sick children staying in hospital with as long contact with their parents as possible, to reduce stress caused by isolation and lack of contact with parents, to publicise the problem of limited contact between parents and children in paediatric wards and to reduce the time of children’s stay in hospitals. The honorary ambassadors of the program are: actress Agnieszka Grochowska and Dariusz Wardziak, known as Darek Stolarz in TV programs.
