We are a team of registered Children’s nurses, health care support staff, and administrators who work with parents and carers of children with acute, chronic, complex health or palliative care needs. The service encompasses; Asthma, Bladder and Bowel continence clinics and pad provision service, Children’s Community Nursing, Haemoglobinopathy, paediatric phlebotomy, and Special School nursing.
Children who have been seen in hospital for either a viral-induced wheeze or asthma or have seen a GP and required steroids within the last 14 days are referred for supportive management of their respiratory needs. The service also works closely with schools to support the ‘Asthma friendly school’ initiative promoting greater knowledge and appropriate care delivery in Hounslow schools.
The service comprises of two key elements; the continence pad provision element and the continence clinic element.
From the age of four, children with a need for continence assessment and pad provision will be assessed and managed by this service. The ordering and delivery of the appropriate pads are arranged separately through the NHS supply chain.
Children needing clinical intervention and specialist nursing support to improve and manage their continence are managed by this element of the service.
The team will manage children with a nursing need such as intravenous antibiotics, central line management, post-operative care, wound checks, home oxygen, or vital signs monitoring, for example, blood pressure.
Babies are usually identified in utero and referred to this service if diagnosed with sickle cell anemia or thalassemia. The nurses support with counselling and follow-up clinical care throughout their childhood for these health needs.
Hounslow GPs can refer children between the ages of 1 and 14 to this service for any peripheral blood-taking needs. The service provides appropriate support and distraction taking into account the individual child’s needs to ensure support is age and cognition appropriate.
Support is provided to four special school sites in Hounslow by our healthcare support workers and nursing staff. Teaching assistant school staff are supported with appropriate training to enable them to provide individualized care to children whilst at school. Our service is available each school day to ensure that any troubleshooting and clinical evaluation can take place for children with complex care needs to ensure their safety.
The service as a whole aims to provide the nursing care, support, and education needed to enable parents and carers to manage their child’s health condition at home.
Where possible, we also work to enable early discharge from hospital and avoid hospital readmissions. This supports feedback that Children and their families can find it easier to receive treatment at home, rather than attending hospital, for certain conditions.
When arranging the plan of care, our team also takes into consideration the care and support needed by the wider family, including parents and carers enabling us to deliver the best possible family-centred care.
Referrals are accepted for children and young people under the age of 18 with a Hounslow GP, children visiting the borough can also be seen if appropriate.
Referrals are accepted from anyone, including healthcare professionals, educational services, social services, carers and families providing a pre-existing health condition has been diagnosed. Once a child has been referred, a nurse will undertake a full nursing assessment and agree on a plan of care with the parents/carers and child.
Some children may have needs that our team cannot meet, in which case we will refer them to the appropriate service. It is rare that we can not meet a child’s healthcare needs.
Our service assesses each referral and where possible book appointments at a locality suitable to you. This could be at home, school, or various clinic locations. Please note the clinical need for a home visit will be assessed by the nursing team and offered if deemed appropriate for your child and in line with our service provision. Occasionally our nurses might be delayed or clinics overrun, if we expect to be more than 30 minutes late we try to inform those affected.
Please note, that morning or afternoon appointments are offered where home visits are necessary, no specific time is given to facilitate streamlined patient visit routes which are subject to change at any time.