The Canning Vale clinic partnered with Notre Dame University medical students to host more than 60 children and their teddies on April 29.
For a small donation, kids were able to bring their teddy in for a check-up and see their toy undergo mock consultation scenarios.
The idea of the teddy bear hospital was to introduce young children to standard healthcare procedures in a light-hearted environment to put them at ease for when they go for their own check-up.
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READ NOWTeddies were put through a range of tests like X-rays (where the machine was substituted for with a cardboard box and a skateboard) and allowed kids to play with stethoscopes and throat-checkers.
Once each teddy was given the all-clear by the doctors, kids received a prescription of fruit to encourage a healthy diet.
Queensgate general practitioner Andrew Leech said it was important to introduce kids to medical centres in a relaxed environment.
“We had them playing around with some of our tools and all sorts of things we’d use in a day-to-day setting, but it was much more light-hearted and fun and we got the kids to play with them without having to worry about having them checked on themselves.”
Dr Leech said they were happy with the response they had received and were planning on more teddy bear hospitals in the future.
“Hopefully it’s something we can do again in the future as a method of trying to break down barriers for children coming into a medical setting.
“The medical students were saying they’d never seen it properly done in a general practice clinic before, so it’s quite a unique thing to do and a unique setting to do it in.”
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