From December 2023 – March 2024, NHS North Central London Integrated Care Board (NCL ICB) conducted a public consultation seeking views of potential changes to children’s surgery in North Central London, covering Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington. We proposed that some surgical care for very young children should be organised in a different way.
We have reviewed and published the feedback on these proposals. We haven’t yet made a formal decision on these changes and are still reflecting on next steps.
The consultation feedback showed clear support for some aspects of the proposals that we put forward, including:
- The need to make changes to respond to challenges in how care is currently organised
- Setting up ‘centres of expertise’ centralising more specialist surgery for young children
- University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) being a centre of expertise for planned day case care
- Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust (GOSH) to be the centre of expertise for inpatient care
We also proposed that Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust (GOSH) as the centre of expertise for emergency surgical care for babies and young children. After reflecting on the feedback and alternative options received during the consultation, we have updated our proposals for emergency surgery. We believe that this will help improve care for young children and will be more straightforward to implement.
Our updated proposal is to use the existing neighbouring hospitals, The Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and The Royal London Hospital as centres of expertise for emergency surgery for babies and young children. All elements of our previous proposals for children’s surgery remain unchanged.
Under the updated proposal, children under the age of three, and five for some conditions, who may need emergency surgery would be transferred to one of these neighbouring hospitals, who already specialise in this type of care, for assessment and treatment. The site they would be generally referred to would depend on which local hospital they initially go to for emergency care.
Prior to taking a decision on these updated proposals relating to children’s emergency surgery, we are now carrying out additional engagement to seek views and feedback on the impact of these potential changes.