Teddy Bears Hospital at Guy's

A unique doctor-patient consultation is about to arrive at Guy's Hospital. Primary school children from the Guy's Hospital vicinity are preparing to bring their sick teddy for an extra special consultancy at the Teddy Bear Hospital.

In an initiative set to put 'white coat' fears at bay, Teddy Bear doctors are at the ready to provide a full teddy examination and prescribe pawscriptions for any ted-aches.

Teddy Bear Hospital is a combined initiative of the European Medical Students Association at Guy's King's and St Thomas' Medical School medical students and the Educational Link Project at Lambeth, supported by the Pool of London Partnership Small Grants Fund in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers. The aim of the hospital is to help children between 4 to 6 years of age overcome their anxiety of visiting and talking to the doctor.

The patients are the child's teddy bear or favourite toy, which has a medical condition of the child's choice. The doctors are clinical medical students. The examination and simple non-invasive treatment is done on the teddy bear, not the child.

In addition to a visit to the Teddy doctors, the children attend educational workshops on Safety in the Home and Good Things to Eat. Taking place on Thursday 7 and Friday 8 November at Shepherd's House, Guy's Hospital, this two-day event will involve over 200 local primary school children.