We didn't want to just build a hospital, and then try and adapt it for children

Ian Barrington general manager

Every detail has been carefully considered from a child's point of view, according to the general manager Ian Barrington.

"We didn't want to just build a hospital, and then try and adapt it for children," he said.

"We have involved children right from the start. As soon as you enter reception you realise it's different - the ceiling is covered with multi-coloured birds, there's a huge novelty clock on the wall and there are mobiles in the wards and painted tiles in the treatment rooms."

Each floor of the hospital is themed according to different colours which were commissioned especially for the hospital by artist Ray Smith.

Space ships

"We wanted to make the wards as friendly for children as possible - so we built the nurses stations at a low level in the shape of boats and animals.

"Each of the ward doors has a window built at children's height and there are child-friendly images like fish and space ships everywhere from the doors to the floors."

It will be a hectic day for patients.

"But I'm really looking forward to it," says GCSE student Rachel Harvey, who is in hospital for treatment to her bowel.

Playstation

"I spend so long in hospital that it will cheer me up going to a new building with new facilities which we've heard so much about."

Fourteen-year-old heart patient James Pearce agreed.

"I've heard that it's really modern with the latest Playstation games, televisions and telephones," he said.

I'll be one of the first patients there - a kind of pioneer

Patient James Pearce

"And I'll be one of the first patients there - a kind of pioneer."

There has been a turn-around in paediatric heart surgery in Bristol since the 1995 scandal.

The new hospital will house a heart surgery unit which can boast results among the best in the country.

And managers are hoping that the multi-million pound building with its unique design and cutting edge facilities will become a model for others not just around the country but around the world.