Opening of new children's ward follows £4.4m investment to upgrade facilities at North Mid
The opening of a new children's ward at North Mid follows a £4.4m investment to improve facilities at the hospital and deliver improved care for local communities in north central London.
The investment in the Paediatric Assessment Unit (PAU), which opened on Wednesday 28 April 2021 will help improve the care provided for our young patients and their families/carers. The new unit is located next to North Mid’s new Children’s Emergency Department (ED), which is one of the busiest children’s EDs in London and was redeveloped following a £1.4m investment last year.
The children's ED's co-location next to the new PAU will improve the experience of coming to hospital for our young patients and their families/carers as they can access the unit more easily and quickly, helping to reduce the amount of time they have to spend in hospital overall and will help them to be seen more quickly.
Andy Heeps, interim Chief Executive of North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust, said: “I’m delighted to see the opening of our new paediatric unit for our young patients in Enfield, Haringey and north central London. We have one of the busiest children’s ED in London and this investment alongside the redevelopment of our new children’s ED will help us deliver better and improved care to meet the needs of our local communities.
“This investment has helped us to provide additional treatment space, reduce overcrowding, and further improve on robust infection control measures we already in place. Not only will it make it easier for staff to provide safe care but it help us better support our community.”
Earlier this year the Trust successfully bid for capital funds to improve our urgent and emergency care pathways. It enabled the Trust to carry out a number of capital projects including a new 20-bed ward named after Captain Sir Tom Moore and to mark North Mid’s Centenary year this year.
The projects will help the Trust expand the services it provides to local communities, improving people’s care and patient experience. It will help improve waiting times in our Emergency Department and ensure people can be seen and treated more quickly.
The five projects included a new 20-bed ward which opened at the beginning of this year, located next to the hospital’s Pymmes building and is now being used to care for patients recovering from surgery. The new ward, called the Captain Sir Tom Moore Centenary Ward provides an additional 20 beds is helping the Trust manage demand arising from seasonal pressures and helping to restore services following the recent Covid-19 outbreak.
A new Emergency department assessment unit (EDAU) opened in February. The unit has been redeveloped on the site of the old children’s emergency department. It provides extra capacity for streaming and assessing patients, so they can be seen more quickly.
A new office area for all of the Trust’s emergency pathway teams (Emergency department administration redevelopment) has been created with improved training and teaching facilities to improve staff and patient experience.
A new Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) unit has expanded the services we provide for outpatients with additional examination, treatment and waiting facilities. Our new SDEC will help reduce the need to admit people as inpatients and prevent recurring attendances to ED.
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See a video tour of our new children's ward (Paediatric Assessment Unit) recorded by Tristan Simpson aged 9 from Chingford with the help of Stumpy Cat, Megan one of our play leaders and some of the staff at the hospital.