Our paediatric surgical service consists of outpatient clinics, day surgery operating and providing surgical opinion in A&E and the wards when present within the Trust.
The service is provided as part of a paediatric surgical network in partnership between Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust and St Georges NHS Trust. This arrangement is crucial and provides the following benefits:
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provides the local population and the GP's with excellent access to robust and high quality paediatric surgical opinion locally;
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good clinical governance arrangements to maintain high standards of patient care;
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good support to paediatric staff within the Trust on managing patients with surgical problems;
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ensuring up to date clinical opinion and procedures are offered to the local children;
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maintaining surgical care locally close to home as much as possible and limiting travel to the surgical centre to complex conditions;
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provide continued professional support and training to staff within the theatres and on the wards;
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encourage good, across site, working relationships within the network.
All types of paediatric surgery are performed by the Trust; mostly day surgery but also some inpatient surgery for orthopaedics and general surgery such as appendicectomy. Day surgery includes ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgery such as tonsillectomy, and general surgery such as circumcision or hernia repair. Eye surgery, such as correction of a squint, takes place at Queen Mary's Hospital for Children.
We also carry out paediatric dental surgery when general anaesthetic is required. Extractions under general anaesthetic for children are no longer carried out in dental surgeries in the community for safety reasons.
At Queen Mary's Hospital for Children there is a Unit dedicated to children's day surgery, providing preoperative care and postoperative care. The children's theatre itself is also in the unit.
Parents are able to escort their child to theatre (some children choose to drive themselves there in the electric car), leaving only after he or she has gone to sleep. Parents can then wait in the parents' room while the surgery takes place, and rejoin their child as soon as he or she come out of surgery.
Paediatric surgery is also performed at Epsom Hospital where children are cared for in Ebbisham ward, a designated children's assessment unit, prior to and after their operation.
