TV programme revamps ward to give it a homely look

The Wonderland Ward at St Luke`s Hospital has been converted to look like a home away from home for the young patients.

The work has been done by the team of the television programme Ideat, which is produced and directed by John Mallia for Insight Communications Agency Ltd., as a do-it-yourself programme that focuses on redecorating rooms.

Mr Mallia admitted that the idea was similar to the British programme Changing Rooms, but with a different twist.

"Homes in the UK use completely different building materials from the ones used in Malta so local viewers cannot always adapt to their homes what they see in Changing Rooms," he said.

The team of Ideat responds to applications from people wishing to revamp a room in their home, office, shop or even their yacht.

Ideat has a budget of Lm300 for every programme and use the money to totally transform a place.

This time round the team of Ideat received a request from one of the nurses at Wonderland, fondly known as Rennie, to redecorate the ward where young children, some of whom are terminally ill with cancer, and their relatives, spend most of the time.

The nurse asked the team to spruce the place up and this is exactly what they set about doing with help from the designers Sharon Abela, Beatrice Migneco and Mark Caruana.

Initially, the team had problems getting the permits to do up the ward, but these were soon ironed out, Mr Mallia said.

The nurses and the young children, who spend hours at the ward, all rolled up their sleeves and gave a helping hand to complete the job in three days.

The ward was completely revamped with new curtains, new upholstery for the chairs, a good paint job and soft furnishings which added a touch of home to the usually sombre hospital environment.

The programme, which is presented by Mariella Scerri, will show how the team of Ideat converted the Wonderland Ward on TVM on Monday at 7.15 p.m. with a repeat on Sunday at 4 p.m.