We think this option will help us to address the challenges in North Central London because The Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and The Royal London Hospital:
- already have the specialist staff and facilities that support high quality care for children’s surgery,
- already provide lots of this care for residents across North London.
Additionally:
- There are no other existing sites within North Central London that could easily support this care.
- If the changes were agreed, we would be able to implement them relatively quickly which means care could be improved quickly.
We think that organising services in this way would bring benefits for patients and their families while addressing the challenges that we have identified. The benefits would include:
- Ensuring children get the surgery and care they need as quickly as possible.
- Treating younger children and more complex cases in centres of expertise which have specialists who are experienced in looking after young children – supporting improved outcomes.
- Treating children in age-appropriate environments, for example child friendly operating theatres and recovery areas which will improve the overall experience of care.
- Agreed systems and processes in place for emergency surgery so all staff know where children should be seen, speeding up treatment and reducing need for staff to find an available bed at short notice.
- Reducing the number of children that are transferred to different units for treatment, helping to reduce stress for patients, parents and staff, reducing the risk of children becoming more unwell.