Intensive Care Consultant Dr Jane Ratcliffe is using her passion for the arts to help transform the quality of life of young patients and their families at Alder Hey Hospital.

Jane is the Chair of Alder Hey Arts and with the help of Vicky Charnock (Arts Coordinator), she leads an innovative programme of activities that has involved several thousand patients from babies to teenagers.

Alder Hey Arts is entirely charitably funded and is supported by the Alder Hey Children’s Charity and The Arts Council.

Alder Hey collaborates with several leading arts organisations including Tate Liverpool, The Comedy Trust and Merseyside Dance Initiative to deliver an extensive arts programme.

Film animation, poetry, music, play, dance, storytelling and comedy are amongst the many activities that patients are encouraged to participate in. One of the most popular projects has been Wild Song at Dawn which brings the sound of nature to patients.  Another project ‘Twin Vision’ involves patients creating film animations on the ward. Some of the films are previewed at a special Oscar style ceremony each year.

Arts activities have proved hugely beneficial to Alder Hey patients. Nurses have reported that children sleep better after classical music has been played live in the wards. On one ward a teenage boy, left severely disabled after suffering meningitis and for a time unable to speak, started to communicate again after playing guitar with a Music Therapist.

“When we began, we looked at how we could make things better for patients and their families in what can be a very boring environment for them with little to do.” Jane said. “The arts open up new ways of delivering some aspects of healthcare and provides an extra dimension for our patients which is engaging and fun. For example, a project involving dance has helped with physiotherapy and reduced the need for as much pain relieving medicine after heart surgery.”

Since establishing the arts programme in 2001, Alder Hey has been at the forefront of arts in healthcare and is recognised nationally for its work in helping to improve the hospital experience for young people and their families.

Jane said: “The arts programme is very special because children and young people are directly involved in working with the artists and learning from them. Hospital staff have also been included from the start. For example, a group of Play Specialists visited Tate Liverpool to select paintings which have since featured in a space which provides much needed distraction before surgery.”

Jane is passionate about all aspects of the arts and it seemed an obvious choice for her to volunteer as Chair of Alder Hey Arts. “I volunteered at the start and have carried out the role ever since and thoroughly enjoy it,” she said.

Jane is now working closely with colleagues on exciting plans for the new Alder Hey which will have a performance space in the atrium and link activities there to every bed. Artists are being commissioned to create work which connects with nature, the overriding theme from consultations with our children and young people.