Operating Rooms
Putting life-saving tools in life-changing hands
Imagine how frustrating it must be to have the knowledge to save a child’s life but not the equipment. This is the frustrating reality for gifted surgeons in many of the places we work. They operate under torchlight, with the ceiling crumbling above, sometimes with broken equipment and only adult-sized instruments.
At Kids Operating Rooms we work directly with Ministries of Health, local surgeons and their teams to transform operating rooms, pre-op and post-op rooms in their hospitals into dedicated spaces for children’s surgery. We've installed more than 50 Operating Rooms in over 20 countries in Africa and Latin-America, creating a capacity for more than 30,000 operations a year. That's 30,000 children every year who now can access the safe surgery they deserve.
Creating child-friendly spaces
Children are at the heart of what we do. The distinct graphic animals you'll see on the walls of our Operating Rooms have become a huge part of who we are. While they look amazing, they actually serve a special purpose: they are designed to offer reassurance and a colourful distraction for children about to undergo surgery.
An operation is scary, even for adults. Unlike in high-income countries, many of the children in these hospitals aren't under anaesthesia when they enter the Operating Room. They hear the scary sounds from the machines and see surgeons they don't know in scrubs. These designs ensure that children don't feel as scared or anxious.
How does the transformation happen?
We identify a hospital without a paediatric operating room or one in desperate need of an upgrade. Then, liaise directly with the local surgeon and their team to find out exactly what medical equipment will make a difference to the children they care for.
The 3,300 pieces of state-of-the-art equipment is then shipped from our Centre of Global Operations in Dundee, including our iconic artwork to make the spaces child-friendly. needed for the operating room is then shipped from our warehouse in Dundee to the hospital. This includes our iconic Kids Operating Rooms artwork to go on the walls. The bright colours and friendly animal shapes are designed to provide a little extra reassurance to children at what is understandably a time when they might feel afraid and unsettled.
It’s not just the equipment that we ship. A team of KidsOR experts will meet the equipment when it arrives to help the local teams unload, set up and commission the medical equipment. A separate team of artwork installers will arrive at the same time to complete the decoration of the spaces.
Once the installation is finished, we keep in touch to offer any support needed with maintenance and replacement parts.
Where We Work
We work in countries where demand for paediatric surgical care is overwhelming.