This year, the Jenny Lind Children’s Hospital at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital is celebrating 170 years of caring for the county’s young people. We take a look at its past, present and future
The past
On April 3, 1854, the first young patients were admitted to Norwich's new children’s hospital.
Only the second such facility in England - the first was Great Ormond Street Hospital - the 12-bed hospital in Pottergate was named after the opera singer Jenny Lind, who was a significant benefactor.
Known as the Swedish Nightingale, Jenny’s worldwide level of fame was comparable to that of Taylor Swift today. So beloved was she that Norwich ground to a standstill when she performed concerts in the city in 1847 and 1849, with crowds lining the streets, church bells ringing and gun salutes.
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital paediatric consultant surgeon Richard England is a keen Jenny Lind historian and is involved in a year-long programme of special events to mark the hospital’s 170th anniversary.
‘As soon as you go to the archives and start looking at letters that Jenny Lind wrote, you get drawn in, it’s just such a fairytale story,’ he says.
‘She had quite a harsh, poor upbringing. Her mother was always trying to scrabble around for money. Her grandmother picked up on her musical abilities and just by chance she was heard singing and went off to a theatre school.’
She became famous across Europe and when she came to England, what Richard describes as ‘Jenny mania’ ensued.
‘I’m not exaggerating, she was bigger than the Beatles for her time, an age without social media and TV,’ says Richard.
‘The whole of Norwich was looking out for her and cheering her on.’
Jenny was welcomed to the city by the Bishop Stanley and his family and stayed at the Bishop’s Palace.
‘She was very religious and wanted to use her musical gifts for the good of the people in a charitable nature, and that’s what happened in Norwich,’ Richard explains.
‘She sang three concerts, then she came back two years later and sang for charity and that money, a lot of money, was raised. Then it just sat somewhere in the city vaults, and no-one knew what to do with it.’
Inspired by the newly-opened Great Ormond Street Hospital, it was decided to use the money to open a specialist children’s hospital in the city.
‘It started with a small band of nurses and a matron and shared with a midwifery unit,’ says Richard.
In its first year it admitted 51 patients and treated 275 outpatients.
And meticulously kept records show that some pioneering and innovative work was carried out by the hospital’s surgeons, even including neurosurgery.
From Pottergate, the hospital moved to Unthank Road. The Colman family provided the land and helped start the fund for the new hospital to be built.
In 1975, the Jenny Lind Children’s Hospital became part of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and then in 2001 the new Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital opened in Colney Lane.
Researching Jenny’s life and legacy has been fascinating for Richard.
Having become a huge star in Europe, Jenny’s fame spread across the Atlantic, where she performed concerts for PT Barnum.
She appeared as a character in The Greatest Showman, but from his research, Richard feels that a certain amount of artistic licence was taken.
‘I think she was a lot more modest and humble than that made her out to be,’ he says.
‘A lot of her biographies say she didn’t like the limelight, but she felt the obligation to use her musical gifts for the good of the people.
‘Most of the concerts she performed in America were for Barnum, but in between she would perform for charity, and America really remembers her fondly, there’s lots of places named after her still.’
The city archives hold a treasure trove of documents and letters relating to Jenny Lind’s relationship with Norwich. She visited the city twice more, which was recorded in the hospital’s visitor’s book, and successive generations of her family have contribued their support.
‘At The Forum they keep the actual concert programmes, and at Norfolk Record Office you can hold letters that Jenny Lind wrote, which really touched me,’ says Richard.
The year of celebrations to mark Jenny Lind Children’s Hospital’s 170th anniversary started in April with an orchestral gala at St Peter Mancroft Church including an appearance by The Crown actress Emma Laird Craig, who is a direct descendent of Jenny Lind.
The present
Based largely in the West Block of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, The Jenny, as it’s affectionately, cares for premature babies of only 22 weeks gestation up to 16-year-olds.
Services today include an emergency department, assessment unit and day ward, along with 33 paediatric inpatient beds on Buxton Ward, 12 neonatal intensive care (NICU) beds and thousands of outpatient appointments every year.
And in January of this year, a new £8.6m paediatric theatre complex opened.
Orthopaedics nurse practitioner and longest serving member of staff David Wormald has worked at The Jenny for 32 years. A large part of his role involves ensuring that the young patients’ hospital visits are as anxiety free as possible.
‘If their hospital admission is planned, we meet the families two to six weeks before they come in, explain what’s going to happen and give the children the opportunity to come around the ward,’ he says.
When a child is admitted in an emergency, it’s imperative to put parents at their ease and keep them fully informed.
‘As soon as the parents are comfortable, the child is a lot more comfortable too,’ says David.
They are also constantly working to make sure that the environment is as child friendly as possible, which includes support from play specialists and visits from clown doctors and pet therapy dogs.
‘It’s a very special thing to be part of,’ he says.
Behind the scenes, work is constantly going on to improve treatment and care for future patients.
Last year Jenny Lind Children’s Hospital had 30 clinical research studies running which were recruiting participants.
Lead research nurse Louise Coke works alongside Amy Nichols, senior research nurse for the women’s and children’s team.
Both of them describe the work, as ‘a huge privilege’.
Says Amy: ‘Without the studies that we’re doing we can’t move forward. The care that we deliver to our premature and sick babies and our children and young people has changed considerably because of some of the research projects that we’ve done personally and some of the research projects that other people have done in the past in other areas, in other parts of the world.
‘The way in which care in neonatal, and paediatrics is delivered these days compared to when I started 30 years ago, is completely different. We’re now accepting 22-week gestation babies, and that’s because of all the advances that have come out of research that we’ve all done over the years.’
Just one of the projects that the hospital has taken part in is the Harmonie study to develop a jab to reduce the number of babies admitted to hospital with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
‘If adults catch RSV they would just have a little cold,’ says Amy. ‘But it can be life changing for babies. We’ve just recruited 32 babies into the Harmonie trial here at this site and the results have been phenomenal in reducing the risk of hospitalisation. It’s now in the hands of our government at the moment to roll it out as an immunisation public health project.’
‘We work very closely with our clinicians and they’re the ones that are coming up with the questions,’ says Louise. ‘It’s not just about waiting for the projects to come to us, we’re asking what is it that they need answered to make their care better and improve the patient pathway.’
The future
The walls in the office of paediatric consultant surgeon and chief of service Priya Muthukumar in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit are lined with countless cards from grateful families, heartfelt thanks to the team for the lifesaving work that they do, caring for tiny, vulnerable babies day in day out.
‘When children are not well, the whole family feels it. By treating one you treat everyone else and that’s what made me come and do paediatrics. I started here as a consultant in 2010, so I’ve been here 14 years now,’ she says.
Building on the success of the opening of the paediatric theatres earlier this year, there are a number of priorities that The Jenny wants to focus on in the next five years: getting the footprint right, making sure that the children have a positive experience, creating a better outpatient service area, ensuring staff have the right skill mix and creating more paediatric theatres.
‘The main priority is a lack of space,’ says Priya. ‘There has been an increase in both the inpatient and outpatient referrals we are getting for children, so we need an expanded footprint within Jenny Lind. Though children are seen in the West Block of the hospital under the Jenny Lind banner, there are children who are seen all over the hospital, which is not an ideal environment. We want to create one that is vibrant for these children, so we are aiming to have a positive health centre outside of the immediate Jenny Lind acute hospital and we are also aiming to have parental accommodation for the parents of babies who are in NICU and in Buxton Ward. What we’ve got at the moment is not sufficient for our needs.’
With elective activity taking a back step during the pandemic they are working along with national targets and the trust to reduce the waiting list.
As Priya says, ‘the workforce is our pillar stone... they are all very positive, they all have this can-do attitude’, so another priority is to make sure that they have got enough rest rooms, ‘the space for them to work is conducive and we’ve got the right skill mix and that they children see the right people at the right time rather than being referred and re-referred.’
A strategic paper has been drafted and they’re currently getting feedback from the Family Voices Partnership and the young patients themselves. They will then take it to the hospital management board for approval and will be collaborating with charitable organisations to raise funds for some of the project.
'When the babies we have treated come back as toddlers running around, you just think that there is still hope. And that’s what we want to spread – that positivity and that hope for these parents,’ says Priya.
Anyone who has a story to tell about their experiences with The Jenny is invited to get in touch. Email JLCHBirthday@nnuh.nhs.uk
During the summer, Paul Dickson is running a series of Jenny Lind walking tours around Norwich. Go to pauldiscksontours.co.uk/jenny-lind-and-norwich
