On the 1st of June we were very pleased to be invited down to do some playing in the waiting areas of Children’s Accident and Emergency department. We spent about 45 minutes there in the afternoon and had some good musical interactions with the children who were waiting there. When we were reflecting on how the day had gone we all agreed that the space had a very different feel to the other wards. Unsurprisingly so, as the children who were there had almost certainly not got up that morning expecting to spend any time in hospital that day! Anxiety levels were higher among the children and they were more reticent about engaging with musicians. There was a lot more ‘playing for’ than ‘playing with’ in that space but the music did seem appreciated. We had some nice comments from parents and a number of people thanked us as we left the spaces. We now know that children’s A&E has a different pace to other wards and the patients who are there are in a very different state of mind to many of the other patients that we work with. This area has opened up another exciting and interesting challenge for us as musicians working in hospital.
