Family rooms and pram routes revamp visits at trust sites
A London NHS trust has refitted waiting areas with buggy-friendly corridors, baby-change bays and two bookable family rooms beside outpatient clinics, so parents attending routine scans or check-ups can manage feeds and nappy changes on site rather than cutting visits short.
The changes were phased in across spring and summer 2025 after estates teams mapped the most crowded routes and found that a typical morning clinic saw dozens of buggies queuing at lifts; the refit added wider turning space, pram parking rails and clear signage so families could move between reception and phlebotomy without back-tracking.
The trust says the shift responds to national feedback trends captured in the Care Quality Commission’s maternity survey, where 77% of respondents in 2024 reported definite trust in staff during labour and birth, down a point from 2023, signalling appetite for small, visible improvements that make everyday visits calmer for new and expecting parents.
Opening hours for the two family rooms run alongside clinic timetables—mornings to late afternoon on weekdays—with a simple 15-minute turnover target so spaces can be used by several families each hour; reception teams record occupancy counts to decide whether a third room is needed at peak times.
Accessibility is built into the detail: step-free paths link the rooms to bus stops and drop-offs, induction-loop indicators sit next to call bells, and laminated how-to cards in the most requested languages explain room use, bottle-warming points and where to request interpreter support for appointments.
Day to day, the effect is deliberately ordinary—a parent settles a feed before a sonography slot, another wheels a buggy straight to a marked bay, and a carer uses the quiet room to calm a toddler—while managers track occupancy medians and wayfinding queries through the rest of 2025 to judge if the tweaks make visits smoother across the site.
