Children at Chase Farm Hospital’s staff nursery now get to pretend to walk the plank at playtime, thanks to companies constructing the new hospital.

Contractors, Galldris Construction, have been working at Chase Farm hospital and wanted to make a £500 donation to the on-site nursery. This enabled the nursery to buy a pirate galleon for the children to play on outdoors.

Nursery manager, Laura Hanna, said: “With all that money, or should I say ‘pieces of eight’, we  decided we should get something very special for the children.

“It was a real team effort as well because the galleon came as a flat-pack and a few of the Integrated Health Partnership (IHP) team, who are also working on the new Chase Farm Hospital site, assembled it and gave it lots of coats of weatherproof paint.

“The children absolutely love it. It’s right in the middle of our playground and it’s a huge attraction for them. We’ve named it ‘The Jolly Galldris’.

Laura also wanted to thank the contractors of Rossbro Decorating for also taking the opportunity to give the internal doors of the nursery a new paint job as well. “We look very ship shape,” she said. “I’d also like to recognise the hard work of Paul Jones, interim head of estates, in co-ordinating us and the contractors.”

Natalie Forrest, chief executive of Chase Farm Hospital, said: “A huge thank you to all of our contractors for going the extra mile for us. Our new hospital is due to open in the autumn and we would like to pay tribute to the hard-working teams who have found the time in their hectic daily schedules to help some of the youngest members of our hospital community.”