Paediatric emergency department

East Surrey Hospital offers a 24-hour specialist children’s emergency care department and the service has grown to one of the largest units of its kind.

The children’s emergency department is separate from our adult emergency care department. Our emergency care team includes paediatric nurses, paediatric nurse practitioners, emergency care practitioners, emergency care doctors and consultants, and an on call (based in the hospital) paediatric medical team.

We are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and provide emergency care for 30,000 to 32,000 children every year. The cases we treat range from minor injuries, major medical problems, surgical emergencies and trauma. Currently 95 – 98% of children are seen and either sent home or admitted within four hours of arrival.

Children are cared for in a child-centred environment with an emphasis on fun and distraction.

Throughout the department are items to help influence the child’s experience such as touch screen interactive computers to play games, portable DVD players and wall-mounted toys. This ensures a comfortable visit for the children and their carers.

Our aim is to assess and treat children with a view to, where possible, send children home with support for their condition to be managed at home. All children requiring admission are cared for by a team of specialist paediatric doctors including surgical, orthopaedic and ENT specialities.

My 7-year-old son fractured his bone above wrist while playing. When I reached A&E, within 20 minutes, they took him in and started process. Within one hour, his x-ray was taken and a temporary bandage was started. Then the doctor on emergency looked after him and explained everything to us and booked for a next day early morning operation. On the next day even though it was a bank holiday, the operation started as scheduled and he was quickly back on his ward after a successful operation. The nursing staff on duty have taken great care of him. He was discharged from hospital by teatime and we were reassured by & satisfied with the brilliant service we received.