Harry Takes Time Out From Schedule to Talk to Patients and Joke With Staff
LARGE crowds of patients and NHS staff greeted Prince Harry as he arrived at the University Hospital of Wales, in Cardiff – the second part of his official visit as patron of Dolen Cymru.
As he made his way to an informal reception at the hospital, to hear about the HIV work Welsh health professionals are doing in Lesotho, he took time out of his schedule to talk to the hundreds of people who had lined his route.
He laughed with student nurses standing behind the railings decorated with Welsh flags, commiserating with them for their 12- and-a-half hour working days.
And he joked with theatre staff in scrubs, asking whether there was anyone inside the hospital looking after patients.
As the relaxed prince, dressed in a navy blue suit, walked towards Cardigan House he stopped to cradle five-month-old Lexi Hailstone in his arms – the baby was discharged from the Children’s Hospital for Wales yesterday after undergoing treatment for meningitis.
Lexi’s mother, Natasha Martin, 19, from Bridgend, said: “He was really down to earth, he was lovely. He was quite taken with Lexi, asking about her and he didn’t want to give her back. He also loved her blanket.”
Prince Harry also complimented Emily Williams on her Welsh flag, which was draped over her wheelchair as she waited in the weak sunshine alongside fellow patient Raymond Lillycrop, 11, from Milford Haven.
The 11-year-old, from Cardiff, has been a patient at the Children’s Hospital for Wales for the last three weeks after undergoing spinal surgery.
Sue Reardon, a play co-ordinator at the hospital, said: “He asked why they were here and whether they were enjoying their stay in hospital and if they were being treated OK. He said if they weren’t he could sort something out.
“He also spoke to Emily about her Welsh flag and she said she preferred Cardiff City.”
The informal reception at UHW, which has extensive links with the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in Lesotho, was organized to give Prince Harry, who has spent time working in the African nation, an opportunity to learn about the HIV and Aids work members of staff are doing. They helped to set up an HIV clinic at the hospital in 2006.
Dr Judith van der Voort, a consultant nephrologist at UHW, who worked in Lesotho when she was a medical student, said: “Prince Harry explained to us how much he enjoyed the children when he went out there and how they are so pleased with so little.
“He was interested in hearing that I was thinking of taking my family out there.
“He said he thought it was a good idea for children from Western cultures to go to a country where there is so little.”
The prince also congratulated Dr van Der Voort, who is Dutch, on being granted British citizenship this week.
Dr Andrew Freedman, a member of Dolen Cymru’s health committee, added: “He was very interested and supportive in what we are doing and said he hoped that we would keep this link going.”
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