Royal Papworth Hospital has joined forces with a group of charities to donate equipment and furniture from its old hospital site.

The Hunts Post: Hundreds of items from Royal Papworth's old hospital, including drip stands, walking frames, wheelchairs, shelves, bedside tables and much more has been donated to a number of good causesHundreds of items from Royal Papworth's old hospital, including drip stands, walking frames, wheelchairs, shelves, bedside tables and much more has been donated to a number of good causes (Image: Archant)

Items that were still useable were transferred to the hospital's new site on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, but thousands of items did not meet the required criteria for the move and remained at the site in Papworth Everard.

Some of that equipment has since been sold at auction, the proceeds of which will benefit the hospital trust, but the majority has been donated to a variety of charitable causes, including the British Heart Foundation and London-based Better Lives Foundation.

Volunteers at Better Lives Foundation transported nine van loads of furniture from Papworth Everard to their storage site in London. The donated items will ultimately be sent to the Yonibana Sai Hospital, in Sierra Leone.

Yonibana Sai Hospital was built by the foundation and is the only free hospital in the west African country. It is due to become a teaching hospital training post graduates.

The Hunts Post: Hundreds of items from Royal Papworth's old hospital, including drip stands, walking frames, wheelchairs, shelves, bedside tables and much more has been donated to a number of good causesHundreds of items from Royal Papworth's old hospital, including drip stands, walking frames, wheelchairs, shelves, bedside tables and much more has been donated to a number of good causes (Image: Archant)

Items that have been taken include drip stands, walking frames, wheelchairs, shelves, bedside tables and much more, and will help towards the hospital's expansion plans which will include a neonatal and maternal building, radiology centre and pharmacy.

Phil Churchill, a cystic fibrosis patient at Royal Papworth Hospital, is responsible for putting the trust in contact with the Better Lives Foundation.

"I was an inpatient at Royal Papworth earlier this year," Phil said. "Whilst I was there, my friend, Ian Harvey, visited me. He is a biology teacher in Cambridge and often goes out to Sierra Leone to help train their teachers on how to develop practical biology lessons with hardly any equipment.

"When he was over there he went to Yonibana Sai Hospital and it was then that he encountered Better Lives Foundation. We started talking and it got me thinking about what was going to happen with the unwanted equipment at Royal Papworth's old hospital. That's when the link was formed and here we are today."

Andrew Selby, associate director for estates and facilities at Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, added: "Whilst a significant number of items were taken with us to our new hospital site, there were plenty of objects that didn't meet the requirements to be transferred but were still perfectly usable for someone else.

"We wanted to try to ensure that all the unwanted hospital furniture wasn't just thoughtlessly thrown away. There have been almost 20 van loads that have been taken away from our site to be used by other organisations in the future, with hopefully more in the pipeline, so we are delighted that we have been able to help a variety of good causes in this way."