'Sacred space' plans for QEH
EMPTY wards and a conference room are still being used for makeshift religious services at Lynn's Queen Elizabeth Hospital as the wait for a new chapel continues.
The chapel has been shut since the middle of June and a specially-constructed suite, costing 1.9 million, is currently being built in its place to house two brand new state-of-the-art scanners.
A replacement building catering for all faiths is to be introduced, but is currently at the design stage and will not be ready before Christmas.
Among those affected by the closure is the West Norfolk branch of Sands – the still birth and neo-natal death society – which holds an annual service for bereaved parents in the chapel.
This year the group was forced to move the service, held on Sunday to a bay on the West Dereham ward, which is currently empty. The service featured hymns readings and prayers, but no hymns because it was not possible to provide an organ.
Local co-ordinator Sue Hanson (57) first got involved with the group, which offers support and information, around 17 years ago following the death of her son Michael, who was stillborn in 1988.
Mrs Hanson, of New Row, Heacham, said: "The service is for anyone who has lost a baby, or the relatives of someone who has lost a baby, and around 30 people usually attend.
"We hold it for two reasons;firstly for people who lost children years ago because it gives them a day to remember their babies – not that we ever forget. And for newly bereaved parents it can be part of their mourning – they can think about their baby without any pressure."
Communications manager at the hospital, Richard Humphries, said the replacement chapel, which will be an interdenominational 'sacred space,' would hopefully be completed and open next year.
"We have been using the conference room for religious services. There is a quiet room on the first floor of the hospital and empty wards are also being used.
"The sacred space is still in the planning stages and we are trying to tailor the design to the cost.
"It will be a separate structure built within one of the courtyards."
The new CT (computerised tomography) scanners will allow doctors total x-ray vision to "see" inside the human body and will replace the old black-and-white x-rays currently in use.
Building work on the suite is in its final stages and it his hoped the new equipment will be fully installed by the end of the month, Mr Humphries added.
To find out more about Sands, call Mrs Hanson on 01485 571518.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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