Changes to services for children at Central Middlesex Hospital
23-Nov-2011
The service for seriously ill children at Central Middlesex Hospital is transferring to Northwick Park from November 25.
Many other services will remain at Central Middlesex, including:
- children’s outpatients (such as daytime services for children with Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia)
- the Brent Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Centre
- planned daytime transfusion services for children with Sickle Cell or Thalassaemia
- Paediatric day surgical service, Monday - Friday providing day surgery facilities for children
The GP-led urgent care centre will continue to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It already assesses and treats about nine out of ten children who visit the hospital.
Professor Rory Shaw, Medical Director of The North West London Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs both hospitals, said: “On most days there are more staff in the PAU than patients and a number of nurses have already resigned as a result. The changes will enable us to maintain our standards of quality and safety and to retain highly-skilled staff.”
The benefits of the new arrangements for children and young people include:
- Better use of hospital staff – more access to consultants and senior nurses for life-threatening emergencies
- Specialist emergency equipment and staff where patients actually use it
- One-stop-shop service – nine out of ten children who need non-life-threatening care can be seen by the urgent care centre
Under the new arrangements, there will be no specialist staff for seriously ill children at Central Middlesex. Instead, all services for these patients will be based entirely at Northwick Park, along with the children’s inpatient ward and day care unit.
If a patient is assessed at the urgent care centre and needs to see a specialist children’s doctor or to be admitted to a ward, then he or she will be transferred to Northwick Park Hospital to see the children’s team in Accident and Emergency. For very poorly children it may be necessary to call an ambulance.
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