Agenda item

Members will receive a presentation detailing progress on the transition of Children’s services from the Glenfield Hospital to the Kensington Building at Leicester Royal Infirmary.

Rebecca Brown, Acting Chief Executive gave a presentation detailing progress on the transition of children’s services from the Glenfield Hospital to the Kensington building at Leicester Royal Infirmary.

Background details of the East Midlands Congenital Heart Centre and NHS Standards were given, and Members were reminded of the decision taken in September 2019 to move the paediatric congenital heart service to the Leicester Royal Infirmary in order to meet the co-location standard.

It was noted that:

·         The project comprised a 12 bed intensive care unit, 17 bed cardiac ward, a cardiac theatre and catheter lab as well as an outpatient and cardiac physiology dept.

·         Phase 1 had completed with the Kensington building being attractively refurbished

·         The move from Glenfield to Kensington building took place from 5^th – 8^th August 2021 with the support of other providers during the transition to ensure that emergency services for children remained available.

·         The Kensington building was fully up and running with all equipment and clinical teams in place.

Images of the new Kensington building were viewed and noted.

Rebecca Brown, Acting Chief Executive explained the next phase, Phase II envisioned the creation of East Midlands first dedicated standalone Children’s Hospital to ensure all children could be cared for on one dedicated site and would see the move of all children’s services into the Kensington building.

Members of the Commission welcomed the presentation, expressing positive comments about the smooth transition and commented on how good the building and unit looked. Members asked that their thanks be passed on to the staff who made this happen and everyone involved in save Glenfield should be assured seeing everything transitioned across so well.

The ensuing discussion included the following points:

In relation to specialist children’s services it was noted that UHL consultants were recognised nationally and regionally as experts. Clinical teams worked with networks across Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire to expand the region and be experts for all those areas too. National recognition for clinical outcomes showed UHL was up in top three.

Regarding space, the Kensington building was very spacious with room for growth and had been very well designed for children and adolescents with

dedicated play therapists and support staff to help children with special needs.

Nicky Topham, Programme Director of Reconfiguration confirmed the new build and existing Kensington building interior had been extended too including down into lower floors.

Phase II would be looking to move services from the Balmoral building and there would be a combined ICU. At moment it had not been prioritised when services would be moved as UHL were still waiting for maternity hospital to be completed that area in the Kensington building decanted and then consider which children services go in and where.

In terms of lessons learnt it was always good practice to review what had been done well and what could be done better and feed into new projects, this process had been started and one such lesson learnt was to give selves more time to move in between the build time.

Rebecca Brown, Acting Chief Executive confirmed there was provision for parents to stay overnight so they could be close to very sick children. There were also other provisions such as McDonalds House.

The Chair mentioned plans for space on Jarrom St and asked for any details about potential development there to be shared.

In relation to data protection and safeguarding of children it was confirmed that all relevant GDPR were complied with and there were a number of rules in place around processing data which were observed and maintained, the space within the building had also been designed so computers were in secure areas.

Safeguarding was important and the safety of children paramount so there were systems ensuring doors were secure and people were only let in with appropriate identification to maintain safety of children whilst they are in hospital care. Systems were also in place around checks and training of staff to ensure safe and secure environment.

In terms of splitting adult and children’s cardiac service from Glenfield e.g. staff/peer support, there had been long term planning and especially in lead up to the transition around recruitment. UHL also invested in training as part of the programme and up skilling staff at LRI side too. UHL had invested to have the right teams on both sites and to support staff moving sites and UHL was confident they now had two very good stand alone services although there were still some services that are joint.

The Chair thanked officers for their responses.

AGREED:

That an update on further developments be brought to a future meeting.