Paediatric inpatient services in St John’s Hospital will resume on Monday (March 18).
NHS Lothian will reinstate the service from Monday to Friday morning each week to provide 24-hour services to children in West Lothian. Conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs MSP gave the announcement a guarded welcome but says the reopening must be sustainable.
The unit will function for four-nights- a-week and revert to a short stay assessment service, running from 8am to 8pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.
Dr Tracey Gillies, Medical Director, NHS Lothian, said parents would not need to do anything differently and if they needed access to healthcare, they should still contact their GP, out of hours services via NHS24 or go straight to Accident and Emergency, if required.
Dr Gillies added: “This is a really important milestone for us and we are really pleased that we can reinstate the inpatient paediatric service at St John’s Hospital.Parents don’t have to do anything differently, they will still access care in the same way, if it is during the week or weekend.
“It does mean, however, that patients who would have been travelling through to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children for inpatient treatment will be able to stay in St John’s Hospital during week nights.”
Services will operate as normal, between Monday and Friday and children who require a short inpatient stay will be admitted to the ward.
The clinical team will work with families and if it is expected that a child may require a longer length of stay, which would prevent them being discharged home at the end of the week, they will be admitted to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children instead.
A paediatric nurse will be available in the Accident and Emergency department of St John’s Hospital through the night over the weekend.
The resumption of overnight inpatient services comes three months after NHS Lothian recruited three new trainee Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANPs) as part of a drive to create a robust staffing model.
The unit is now staffed by a multi-disciplinary team of consultants, nurses and a greater number of ANPs.
Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs MSP said: “Families in West Lothian will be relieved that the paediatric inpatient services at St. John’s hospital will at long last be resumed.
“I am concerned about the sustainability of the paediatric inpatient service and SNP Ministers will need to carefully monitor staffing levels to ensure the ward stays open permanently.
“In the past we have seen the paediatric inpatient service reopened at St. John’s hospital, just to be closed again. SNP Ministers must now ensure that we do not see a repeat of this.”
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