We are celebrating the successes of its Paediatric A&E departments.
Back in December 2020, we opened a specialist paediatric area in the Cumberland Infirmary’s Accident & Emergency department.
The significant upgrade meant a bigger space and more specialist rooms to cater for babies up to teens. Paediatric A&E, that used to have just one waiting room and one cubicle, now includes:
- waiting room;
- triage room;
- a safe room;
- high dependency unit;
- three clinic rooms
The main challenges the department faced before the upgrade was lack of staff and lack of space to see children confidentially.
Since the upgrade, we have received lots of positive feedback about the new facilities.
Patient feedback:
“As I was attending with a 14 year old we were in the very nice children’s area waiting room. The triage nurse was lovely and very quick. We did wait a long time but it was very busy and more urgent cases came in. They did their best to put my son at ease and double checked their diagnosis with a surgeon.”
“The best service I have experienced in a hospital. I can’t thank the team and care we received enough. We were in the children’s part of urgent care and got seen by Katie the paediatrician and the doctor. They were so efficient and quick and did everything to ensure it was quick and as less stressful as it could be for my 18 month old. They even spoke to me while she played in the waiting area so they didn’t stress her for addition time.”
Katie Habebe, Sister for Paediatrics in Emergency Care, said:
“I’m really proud of the development of the department as a whole this last year but I am most proud of our growing team. There was only 3 nurses and through hard work we have developed our team, not just in numbers but in skills too. We now have 10 paediatric nurses and 2 consultants along with brilliant students and healthcare assistants.
“We don’t plan to stop now; we are committed to being the best team we can be.”
The department is not only bigger now but is also equipped to cater for needs that are more complex. The high dependency unit will enable the A&E teams to provide better care for those who come in with urgent care needs, while the safe room is an important addition to support children with mental health needs.
Patient feedback:
"My son has ADHD, ASD, and sensory issues and he became overwhelmed due to the noise. The doctor on duty in the children’s department saw this and gave him a quiet area to wait and saw him immediately."
