What is your current role?
I am currently the matron for children's renal and urology, interim matron for theatres and joint clinical lead for our new Children's Day Treatment Centre project.
How long have you worked for Evelina London?
I have been part of the Evelina London family for a long while, (over 30 years) working in several roles and projects.
What do you like about working at Evelina London?
I am passionate that the service that we provide for our patients is of the highest quality, starting from the moment that they are referred to Evelina London. I am proud to work in a centre that has integrated care with the community, ensuring that children’s care and treatment is continued past discharge. Evelina London is a great place to work as we have a strong commitment to develop our staff and are supported in doing that with an education team and resources.
What do you find exciting about your work?
As a ward sister for a short stay surgical unit, I developed an interest in the provision of day surgery. Many procedures that historically required several days inpatient stay are now done as day cases- when done well, this improves the patient and family’s experience and allows better use of inpatient services. Therefore when Evelina London started discussing building a new, dedicated centre for day surgery as part of our expansion, I was very excited to be part of that vision and work towards it becoming a reality.
What can you tell us about the new Children's Day Treatment Centre?
The new Children's Day Treatment Centre will be a purpose built building located next door to the existing Evelina London building. The construction has already started and we are on track for it to be completed in late 2022. The state-of-the-art building will also provide specialist clinical facilities as well as space for future services. The dedicated children's day surgery unit will be over the first two floors and will comprise of admission and discharge areas plus two operating theatres. I am really excited that this will benefit our patients. There is also work under way to incorporate technology to engage with and help prepare our patients for their journey through our new centre.
Thank you to the children and young people who have so brilliantly illustrated our blog pages.