New Changing Places toilet opens in Outpatients Department of Royal Brompton

A new Changing Places Toilet has opened for patients, visitors and staff in Royal Brompton Hospital’s Outpatients Department.

A Changing Places Toilet is specially designed for people with significant learning and physical disabilities, and their carers, to use safely and with dignity. It offers more than a standard accessible toilet, with additional space to accommodate two carers. It includes a height adjustable toilet, sink, an adult-sized changing bench, hoist and shower.

Located on the ground floor of Fulham Wing in the heart of Outpatients East, it is the third Changing Places Toilet across Royal Brompton Hospital and Harefield Hospital. It is also close to one of London’s busiest stations, South Kensington Station, being just half a kilometre away.

The official opening of the facility was attended by several hospital staff and representatives from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, including the borough’s lead member for adult social care and public health, Councillor Josh Rendall. Councillor Rendall is also one of three councillors who represent the Stanley Ward in Kensington and Chelsea, in which Royal Brompton Hospital is located.

Councillor Rendall said: “Changing Places Toilets are a statement of dignity, inclusion and accessibility and it’s great to see the Royal Brompton investing in the scheme, ensuring this world-class hospital is accessible to all.

“We are committed to making our borough inclusive for everyone and already have two Changing Place Toilets in our parks, with a third currently being built at Westfield Park in Chelsea. These, together with Royal Brompton’s second Changing Places Toilet and others at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and the Natural History Museum, I hope will encourage more people to come to the borough.”

Ras Kahai, specialist respiratory dietitian at Royal Brompton and one of the leads for the project, added: “I’m particularly proud that this is our hospitals’ third Changing Places Toilet and that our executive leaders advocated and took a moral approach to get the funding to support these initiatives. It feels as if we’re going back to the roots of our hospital – Sir Philip Rose set up Royal Brompton nearly 185 years ago after his clerk had tuberculosis, trying to fight health inequalities, and here we are today.”

Piers McCleery, Royal Brompton director of strategy and planning, said: “Making sure everyone, including disabled people, can access facilities at our hospitals with comfort and dignity means a great deal to the work we’re doing to become a more inclusive organisation. Thank you and well done to everyone involved for driving this initiative through.”

Changing Places Toilets can be found across most of the Trust’s main hospital sites including St Thomas’. The other two at our hospitals are in Harefield next to the restaurant and in Royal Brompton’s Chelsea Wing. They can be found on the official Changing Places website.

Alongside the new Changing Places Toilet in Fulham Wing, the ramp entrance and ground floor of Britten Wing has recently been refurbished to improve the work environment for staff in this area.

The ground floor of the building now has a much more accessible ramp entrance with automated doors, new flooring, repainted walls and unique artwork donated by Queen’s Gate School, which is local to Royal Brompton Hospital.

More work to improve accessibility at Royal Brompton will be underway in the coming months, with a major project to improve Fulham Wing’s main entrance. By making these upgrades to the hospitals’ estates, the goal is to further embed them as local organisations paving the way for championing accessibility within their communities.