Day surgery at Evelina London

Over 2,100 children have had an operation in Evelina London’s dedicated children’s day surgery unit since we opened its doors a year ago today. ?

The unit, which is part of our new children’s day treatment centre, has significantly increased our surgical capacity, creating two new operating theatres. It provides a child-friendly and welcoming space for children who need an operation but don’t need to stay overnight. This frees up beds and theatres in the main children’s hospital for more complex procedures and overnight stays.

Engagement with children, families and staff were at the heart of how we approached the development. We engaged children and families in many areas, including the journey a child would take on the day of surgery. We also worked with them to create a child-friendly and welcoming space.

Child-friendly facility

You can see children’s input as soon as you walk through the doors. The fun and educational space-themed artwork was inspired by submissions into an art competition we ran for patients, children and young people from our region.

Welcoming the competition entrants back to a special event with the UK Space Agency last summer, so they could see how their artwork had been interpreted, was very special. As was seeing the winning artist, Ella, meet Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales, Evelina London’s Royal Patron, at our official opening in December.

Delivering patient benefit

Our fabulous clinical and support teams saw the development of the children’s day surgery unit as an opportunity to think about how we could do things differently to really benefit patients. For example, we knew from previous feedback that families had asked why their children had to wait 4 hours after general anaesthetic before going home, regardless of their procedure. Responding to this, the teams have developed, tested, and introduced criteria-led discharge. This means patients can return home sooner after surgery, when safe and appropriate to do so. Every family giving feedback in April, told us that they felt they were sent home at the right time.

We’ve also created patient information resources in a number of formats, recognising that children of different ages and abilities will have different needs. We have created a video with Dr Ranj, including an audio-described version, leaflets, an engaging app and even a virtual reality video to put children at ease and help them prepare for their day of surgery.?

Working in the unit

Our diverse day surgery team of theatre nurses, surgeons, anaesthetists, play specialists, receptionists, porters and administrative staff all want to provide the best care and experience to patients and families.

Bren, one of our theatre nurses, said: “The passion that everybody shows day-to-day is just spectacular. I am truly blessed and honoured?to be a part of this wonderful team!”

Evelina London is a great place to work and there are plenty of clinical and non-clinical job opportunities. In the children’s day surgery unit we want to attract more local people into roles such as theatre support workers and administration and we’d support and develop you to grow your career with us.

Award-winning unit

We are delighted the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors has recently named the children’s day surgery unit London’s best public sector project, particularly praising our patient engagement programme.

As an organisation, we absolutely recognise the importance of developing services with children, families and staff. Quality and meaningful engagement will be core to our work as Evelina London Children’s Hospital prepares to become the home of our region’s specialist children’s cancer services. We intend to use some of the space that is not yet in use within the children’s day treatment centre for cancer day cases, chemotherapy, and procedures. We will also be developing an area of the children’s hospital as our children’s inpatient cancer ward.?Over the coming months, there will be opportunities for children and families to get involved in helping to shape the plans.

Find out more about Evelina London: https://www.evelinalondon.nhs.uk/Home.aspx

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