Five Wexford waiting rooms now keep children's books on the shelf
HSE and Wexford Library Service launched Read While You Wait at the hospital's children's clinic, with shelves also going to clinics in Wexford town, Gorey, New Ross, and Barntown. Families read on site and leave the books for the next patient.
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The reporting lives at South East Radio. Our summary is checked against it, and we link it on every story.
South East Radio reported on November 4, 2026, that Read While You Wait has put children's books into five health waiting rooms in County Wexford. The launch was at the paediatric outpatients department of Wexford General Hospital. HSE Dublin and South East developed the project with Wexford Library Service. The other shelves are at Wexford Primary Care Centre, Gorey Health Centre, New Ross Health Centre, and the Children's Disability Network Centre in Barntown.
Families are invited to read a book together while they wait and to leave it for the next family. Senior health promotion officer Lisa Nangle said reading with children supports language, learning, and wellbeing, and that the shelves turn waiting into time together. Physiotherapist manager Orla Fahy said the books should give children at the hospital something engaging to do. Senior executive librarian Yvonne Smith said the library service selected and supplied the books, and that the project can point families toward the public library as well.
The Wexford rollout follows a pilot in County Waterford and is supported by the Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board and Adult Literacy for Life. The report names the five sites and the partners. It does not say how many books are on each shelf, or how many families used them on the first day.
For the classroom
South East Radio reported that five waiting rooms in County Wexford, Ireland, now have shelves of children's books. The project is called Read While You Wait. It started at the children's clinic at Wexford General Hospital. The other shelves are at a primary care center in Wexford, health centers in Gorey and New Ross, and a children's center in Barntown. Families can pick up a book while they wait and leave it there for the next family. The library service chose the books. A similar project already ran in County Waterford. The news is these five shelves. It does not say how many books are on each one.
- How could reading together change the feeling of waiting for an appointment?
- Why should the books stay in the waiting room instead of going home?
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