The seventh annual Teddy Bear Hospital at NUI Galway will see over 1,300 sick teddy bears admitted to the hospital, accompanied by their minders, local primary school children.

The event is organised by the Sláinte Society, the NUI Galway branch of the International Federation of Medical Students Associations, and up to 200 medical and science students will diagnose and treat the teddy bears.

In the process, they hope to help children, ranging in age from 3-8, feel more comfortable around doctors and hospitals. Over the years, children have come along with teddy bears suffering from an imaginative range of sore ears, sick tummies and all kinds of others weird and wonderful ailments.

Hanin Hamza, a first year medical student at NUI Galway and a member of Sláinte Society, is heading up the event organisation this year. “We hope to build on the successes of previous years and show that going to the doctor isn’t so scary after all,” she says.

On arrival at the Teddy Bear Hospital on campus, the children go to the ‘waiting room’, which contains jugglers and face painters. Then the children and their teddy bears are seen by a team of Teddy Doctors and Teddy Nurses, who will examine them. The students will have specially designed and built X-ray and MRI machines on hand, should the teddy bears need them.

Recuperating teddy bears can avail of medical supplies from the Teddy Bear Pharmacy, stocked with healthy fruit from Total Produce, along with medical supplies to help poor teddy recover.

After all this excitement the children can enjoy a bouncy castle and visit an Order of Malta ambulance.

Ríona Hughes, NUI Galway’s Societies Officer, said: “The Teddy Bear hospital is a wonderful opportunity for the students to engage in a meaningful way with the children in Galway City and County schools.

“It is one of the NUI Galway societies' most colourful and endearing community outreach programme and we are thrilled with its success.”

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.