Children’s Services at Bradford Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (BTHFT) provide acute, elective and community services to the young population of the city of Bradford; which is currently approximately 150,900. Services are offered at both Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke’s Hospital.
Children’s Services at Bradford Royal Infirmary includes an inpatient ward (ward 30), day-case ward (ward 2) and a children’s clinical decisions area (ward 32) with nine short-stay beds. We also work closely with community care teams to support children when they are discharged from hospital.
Wards 30 and 32 are collectively referred to as the Children’s and Young People’s Unit.
Ward 32 is our clinical decisions area to which children are referred from a variety of sources including Accident and Emergency, GPs, midwives, and community nursing teams. Children with ongoing health problems can also self-refer. Patients are assessed in the clinical decisions area by the paediatric or surgical teams and a decision will be made about the need for further care.
Ward 32 has nine short-stay beds, and children can stay on the ward for up to 24 hours. They are then sent home or admitted to the ward for further care. Children may be discharged home into the care of our community nurses who are called the ACE team, provided they meet the referral criteria.
If a child requires longer treatment they may be moved to ward 30, a 41-bed inpatient unit which provides treatment for medical and surgical conditions.
Children and young people are admitted to the ward both acutely (emergency admission) and electively (planned admission) for a variety of conditions. The ward includes a stabilisation area for children who are clinically very unwell and require ventilatory support; children can be cared for here until they can be transferred to a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).
Bradford does not have a PICU. Children may be transferred to other units with the help of the Embrace team, who ensure the safe transfer of patients between centres.
Ward 2 is our children’s day case unit; children attend for planned or acute (emergency) surgery and will go home after treatment or be transferred to ward 30 if they are not able to go home within the day.
The ward also runs a haematology service which gives regular blood transfusions and treatments to children with complex blood disorders. The service also carries out day-case medical procedures such as food challenges for children who suffer from food allergies and other day-case tests.
Ward 2 is open from 07:30 to 20:00 Monday to Friday, with the exception of Tuesday when it remains open until 21:00. The service also offers a hand clinic, dressing clinic and pre-op clinic.
Services at St Luke’s Hospital include a children’s outpatient department, child development centre, and children’s community and continuing care nursing teams. We also have a palliative care service, continence service and nurse specialist and medical secretary teams.
We care for children with:
- Meningitis
- Sepsis
- Chest infections
- Viral infections such as bronchiolitis
- Constipation
- Diabetes
- Mental health issues
- Cellulitis
- Complex neurodegenerative conditions
- Fractures
- Abscesses
- Head injuries
- Metabolic conditions
- Cochlear implants
- Tonsilectomies
- Bleeding disorders
- Complex respiratory conditions
These are just a few of the conditions we see on the unit. The children of Bradford are cared for by a committed medical, nursing and support team.
The medical team consists of consultants, specialist registrars and junior doctors as well as advanced nurse practitioners.
The nursing teams include senior and junior sisters, staff nurses, healthcare assistants and nursing associates. Nurse specialists are also involved in planning care for children with complex needs.
The support team features play leaders, housekeepers and healthcare assistants. We also welcome student nurses at all levels of training from the Bradford School of Health and surrounding universities.
The surgical teams include staff from orthopaedics, ENT, Maxill facial, general surgery and urology and plastics.
All teams work in collaboration with physiotherapists, dietitians, speech and language therapists, pharmacists and psychologists in order to offer the best possible care for each child and young person. Ward 30 has its own schoolroom and the teaching staff work remotely from there to support children of school age on ward 2. The schoolroom is open during term time.
All three wards also have their own playrooms supported by a fully qualified nursery nurse who provides expert access to distraction techniques as well as play.
The whole service is ably supported by the Trust’s management and administration teams.
We hold specialist clinics for the following groups of patients:
- Epilepsy
- Rheumatology
- Diabetes
- Asthma
- Cystic fibrosis
- Nephrology
- Haematological disorders
We also hold clinics which are supported by visiting consultants from other hospitals in the following areas:
- Metabolic disease
- Cleft lip and palate
- Cardiology
- Paediatric surgery
- Endocrinology
- Genetics
- Neurology
- Urology
- Nephrology
Our service has an outreach/specialist nursing team. The specialist teams provide supervisory care for children and young people with a wide range of problems and liaise closely with our medical staff.
Specialist nursing services are provided in the following areas:
Cystic fibrosis and PCD (primary ciliary dyskenesia)
- Blood disorders
- Epilepsy
- Metabolic Disease
- Asthma
- Continence
- Enuresis
- Surgical conditions
- Rheumatology
- Child development
