[WATCH] It’s going to be a red nose day as clowns take over hospital

Malta's most famous singing doctor Gianluca - TV presenter Salvu Mallia - child star and junior Eurovision Gaia Cauchi... see if you can spot them amid the clowning about inside Mater Dei's wards and corridors...

The new NGO Dr. Klown will next week start providing clown doctor services at Mater Dei Hospital, after a rigorous training programme for aspiring clown doctors, together with a multi-disciplinary team of professionals. What started off as a pilot project is now evolving into a growing NGO that prides itself in delivering humour.

Popularised by the film Patch Adams, clown doctors dose their patients with fun and laughter. "Hospital can be scary, confusing or just plain boring for kids. This is where clown doctors can help," the organisation says.

"Clown doctors are not doctors but volunteers from every walk of life that are artistically and psychologically trained to entertain children in hospital. For clown doctors, it is the person that matters, not the illness. Even when kids are very sick they are still kids and clown doctors can help them forget they are sick for a moment. Just a smile is enough for the clown doctors to know that they have helped."

But clown doctors also visit children in their beds, or stay with them while they are having treatment. "They ‘play with the moment’ and improvise around each child’s situation and interests. Kids are encouraged to join in. Sometimes they just feel like watching. Families and staff are included in the fun," the NGO says.