Young patients coming to Walsall Manor Hospital can now use a child-friendly app to help them feel prepared for their surgery and treatment.

The Little Journey app has been funded through Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust’s charity, Well Wishers, and is being launched tomorrow (Thursday 1 August).

It provides engaging, interactive and age-appropriate content to help calm any nervousness children may have about coming into hospital and to help them and their parents and carers better understand what will happen during their stay.

Little Journey was founded in 2018 by Dr Chris Evans, an anaesthetic Doctor, who had witnessed first-hand how distressed and anxious children and families felt about surgery, along with Sophie Copley, an expert in human-centred product design.

Garry Perry, Associate Director Patient Voice – Experience, at Walsall Healthcare, said: “A hospital visit or stay can be daunting for anyone but especially for children and young people, many of whom won’t have used healthcare services before.

“Little Journey is a really helpful way of guiding them through what to expect well ahead – explaining what will happen in a straightforward way and helping to take away a lot of the nervousness they feel. It is also invaluable for parents and carers trying to support their children through what is a worrying time for the whole family.”

Walsall’s Little Journey currently features the Paediatric Surgery and MRI Pathways and, leading up to the launch, staff on the Children’s Ward have been familiarising themselves with its content and features.

Over the next few weeks families will also be asked to give their feedback which will be used to make any changes needed.

Garry added: “We’d like to thank Well Wishers for funding this for us and helping us work in partnership to improve our young patients’ experience.”

Georgie Westley, Fundraising Manager at the Trust, said: “Well Wishers is pleased to be able to support such a useful resource for families who use our paediatric services.

“There was no hesitation when the Charity Trustees were approached to provide funds of just under £7,500 and we look forward to hearing feedback as to how charitable funds has made a difference to our young patients and their families’ experience.”

The app is free to download from Google or Apple stores and contains lots of useful information.