New children's A&E unit opens on Isle of Wight

A new children’s A&E department is open on the Isle of Wight.

With around 8,000 paediatric attendances each year to the Island's Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) and A&E, health bosses say it's important young patients are seen in a dedicated area that means they are being treated and cared for in an environment that meets their needs.

The new area at St. Mary's Hospital in Newport includes an observation area, assessment cubicles and a stabilisation bay that can be adapted to two stabilisation bays if needed.

Young patients often come into our emergency departments all at once so the room is needed to be able to treat multiple patients at any one time.

Geoffrey Smith, our Emergency Department Paediatric Charge Nurse, said:

“This is great news for our young patients and Island community. Hospitals can be a really scary place, especially for young people. Previously they would have had to walk past our adult resus department which can often be a really busy area and overwhelming for young people.

“The new area means that when a child needs to come to the emergency department they can be treated in a much calmer environment which is really important when you are trying to provide them with the care they need and reduce their anxiety.”

The Emergency Department Team worked closed with the Estates Team to ensure everything was designed and built with our patients in mind.

Emergency Department Consultant Dr Thomas Lawal-Rieley said: “We are delighted with the new area and feel really proud to be investing in our hospital for our Island community. We now have 3 to 4 times more space which is really important when we could potentially have multiple trauma patients in the department at the same time. Although we are not a specialist children's hospital we are still really passionate about improving our services so we can provide the very best quality of care to our community.”

Susan Barker, Estates Project Manager said: “It was fantastic to have worked with our paediatric Emergency Department Team on this project. The new environment has been made much friendlier with our decorative murals, and there is now dedicated waiting area so our young patients can wait to be triaged away from the adult waiting area.

“One of the key project requirements was creating audio and visual separation of the children’s waiting area from the adult section within ED, which we have achieved through the installation of secure-access doors at both ends of the new department. The inclusion of wall vinyl artwork in the refurbishment has created a more relaxing environment where children can received emergency care. Similarly if we have a patient who has dementia in our adult area then it can be quite distressing for them to be listening to children who might be crying.”

The team worked for 2 to 3 months to deliver, however they have even more plans in their long term vision for the service.

Geoffrey said: “Before I qualified as a nurse 4 years ago I used to work as a research analyst so I am drawing on my skills that were heavily customer experience focused and incorporating them into our future plans for our paediatric emergency department. I am also a parent myself so when we are developing our plans I can do this not only with my nursing hat on but also as a potential service user and worried parent’’

Whilst the new environment is a massive step towards improving emergency paediatric services, the team are always looking for new ways to improve the care they provide.

Geoffrey continued: “Our next steps will be to introduce iPads to help with distraction play so we can reduce their anxiety and enable our teams to provide treatment more easily. I am also a massive Star Wars fan and have some really creative ideas to transform the environment which will not only help make our particularly young patients feel more at ease but also help our teams when trying to assess them.”