A big part of the charity’s role is to ensure our patients’ hospital experience is the best it can be.

Earlier this year we met with the Ex Cathedra Singing Medicine team in order to build a fun positive experience of being in hospital through music and song.

The amazing team that makes up Ex Cathedra were really supportive in building a programme which is bespoke to our children & young people’s service. We are a specialist hospital and sometimes our patients can struggle to get involved in activities due to their orthopaedic conditions. Ex Cathedra work really hard to ensure every patient, child and family member has the opportunity to get involved and join in the fun.

In an environment where children can feel they have lost control over their lives, singing games offer children ways of making decisions.  The Singing Medicine programme also supports areas of children’s learning and can be adapted to meet children’s individual needs as required. The deep breathing required by singing enables participants to reconnect with core muscles, and helps increase lung capacity, which of course helps the patients feel more calm and at home.  Singing activities often include some movement to increase physical mobility, and vocal tutors are actively working with physiotherapists in order to increase the development of particular muscles in conjunction with their daily excersizes, which is a great added extra for our patients.

“Investing in the experience of our patients is something we do with pride. When we heard about the success of the programme at other local hospitals, we were really keen to replicate that enhanced experience for children & young people at the ROH” Rebecca Lloyd – Head of Strategy

Working in child or family groups singing sessions relieve boredom, offers a distraction from the ward around them, and reduce social isolation, something so important in a care setting. Ex Cathedra will be joining our children & young peoples service twice a week for the next 6 weeks which is something truly special for the patients at ROH.