THE charity organisation associated with Bustamante Hospital for Children is seeking the public’s help to raise $8 million to build restroom and shower facilities for parents and guardians of patients of the hospital’s Accident and Emergency Unit.

To that end, Friends of Bustamante Hospital for Children (FBHC) is staging an Adventures in Wonderland themed party at King’s House today.

Tickets are going for $15,000, with people being encouraged to donate to the cause even if they are unable to make the event.

Chair of the board, Dr Karla Hylton, told the Jamaica Observer that the decision is based on what it describes as the need for a proper restroom facility at the hospital.

“Parents are important. They are the ones bringing in their children and even though they are not the patients, many of them stay by their sick children’s side… Many parents come from all over the country, they need to refresh and relieve themselves with dignity,” she said.

The A&E Unit sees about 300 children a day, which means at least the same number of adults on any given day. The current facility, comprised of two stalls each for male and females, is inadequate, Hylton maintains.

She says the project is expected to take six months once the target is reached.

FBHC has been associated with the hospital from the very beginning, tracing its genesis to November 6, 1963 when a group of friends of Dr Leila Wynter-Wedderburn, then senior medical officer, used their personal motor vehicles to transfer patients from the paediatric ward at Kingston Public Hospital to the newly opened children’s hospital.

“Dr Wynter-Wedderburn felt that transporting the patients in ambulances would be distressing and traumatic, and instead, arranged for a number of her friends to assist with the transfer of the children. These ladies hand-carried the children in cars, driven by their husbands and friends, and successfully met the deadline of 12:30 pm, a target time which had been set by the minister of health,” Dr Hylton related.

“The transfer was handled so smoothly and successfully and the participating ladies were thrilled to be part of such a historic event that they decided to assist the doctors and nurses settle into their new environment. That heralded the birth of the group then known as the Friends of the Children’s Hospital, on the very day now celebrated as Leila Wynter Day, November 6,” she added.

To mark the organisation’s 55th anniversary last November, it launched a website — www.friendsofbusta.com — and started the planning for the construction of the parents’ restroom. There are also nascent plans to take on improvement to the staff restroom facilities in a future project.

“Over the past 55 years, the Friends of BHC has provided much-needed assistance to the hospital in many vital areas when limited resources were unable to meet all demands. We have been involved in capital projects, we assist with hospitality and morale, patient support, as well as purchase of consumables and covering incidentals,” Dr Hylton explained.

The FBHC chair said the organisation is guided by the philosophy that a good health service is vital to a nation’s growth, which should begin with the care of children.

The governor general’s wife, Lady Allen, is patron of the FBHC.