Last week saw the exciting start to a new service for children based at Chorley District General Hospital.
After many months of planning, everything was ready for the first “children’s surgery day” with children being admitted to Rawcliffe Ward for day surgery procedures.
The ward became a “pop up” children’s ward, with posters and toys and a vast team of professionals - surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses, HCAs and play specialist - were ready to greet the children as they arrived.
This project was created with an aim to improve efficiency in the pathway, reduce the number of waiting children and improve patient experience.
The children’s surgery GIRFT report had indicated an opportunity to look for an alternative model of surgery for children, and the NW Region Operational Delivery Network and National Clinical Director for Children Simon Kenny have supported the move.
This development has also been supported by Professor Tim Briggs during the accreditation of the Chorley Elective Surgical Hub.
A total of 5 lists were running on Thursday including ENT, dental, maxillofacial, plastic surgery and ophthalmology.
The preparation for this was considerable and involved the MDT introducing risk assessments for selecting appropriate children, developing SOPs to ensure safety and quality, job planning, equipment selection, pharmacy planning, resuscitation simulation, training, safeguarding, pathway walkthroughs and 2 small scale trial days. Feedback was obtained from clinicians, parents, and children to create a model that would work.
All in all, this led to a very successful first session, and the plan now is to have a “children’s day” at Chorley once a fortnight.
Staff Nurse Abigail Pemberton is excited by the service: “We go along as a team from here at Royal Preston Hospital, down to Chorley, the anaesthetists are all there, and it runs from 7am until closing.
“It’s like a pop-up children’s hospital. Here (at RPH), there’s constantly something going on, so opening up Thursdays at Chorley is great - it’s really moving the service forward.
“It’s a lovely spacious area there and we have a bay for each speciality, so that makes it easier for when the surgeons come as well, and it makes it flow a bit easier.
“Ultimately, post-Covid, children’s waiting lists are long, as they are anywhere, and a lot of them are on a timeframe for things to be done before they’re too old and hitting adult services, so it’s important we try and move them forward.
“It’s bringing the list down. Some of the children are missing school, important stages, so getting them in and getting things done makes life easier for everyone, the children, parents, teachers.
“Hopefully it progresses further, because it has a dramatic effect.”
