About Us

Our Children’s Outpatient Department is based in Bernard Meade Wing on the Ground Floor – to find us, please enter the hospital at the Main Entrance and turn right, following the main corridor a short distance until you see the double doors to Children’s Outpatients.

Thousands of children attend our clinics each year. If your child is referred, you will receive a letter or phone call informing you of your child’s appointment time, and a text message reminder. Some of our appointments are now virtual, using ‘Attend Anywhere’ technology to do video consultations between you and your child’s clinician. You will be sent a link to follow to join the ‘virtual waiting room’, and a leaflet advising you of tips to make this work as smoothly as possible.  If possible, please try to weigh and measure your child at home before the virtual appointment.

Our clinics are run by General Paediatricians, Specialist Nurses, Physiotherapists, Dietitians and Speech and Language therapists.  We also host Joint Specialist clinics, co-ordinated by our Paediatricians and visiting specialists from other hospitals.

When you attend your appointment in person, please check in at the reception desk. Your baby or child will be weighed and measured by a nurse before seeing the clinician. Please arrive in plenty of time so this can be done prior to the appointment time. Please do ask if you have any questions before you leave. If a follow up appointment is recommended, this will be sent to you by post, so do check that we have correct contact details for you.

If your baby has been referred to our ‘Prolonged Jaundice clinic’ by your GP or midwife, please take a look at our Prolonged Jaundice clinic information on what to expect from the clinic.

If you are a parent looking for information about our video appointment service, please see our video appointments web pages. To access your appointment, you can also use this link: https://nhs.vc/khftpaediatrics

You can see more information about our Nutrition and Dietetics service here.

What is the Children’s Outpatient Department? 

Children’s Outpatients is a special area set up for children to have clinic appointments. Children are seen in outpatients usually after a referral from their GP or for follow up after their admission to hospital. There are many different types of clinics. 

Some children only need to be seen once in clinic, or you may have to come and visit us a few times for follow up or further tests.  Many of our follow ups can now be done as a virtual consultation.

If your child is referred, you will receive a letter or phone call informing you of your child’s appointment time, and a text message reminder. 

Our clinics are run by General Paediatricians, Specialist Nurses, Advanced Nurse Practitioners, Physiotherapists, Dietitians and Speech and Language therapists. We also host a number of Joint Specialist clinics, co-ordinated by our Paediatricians and visiting specialists from other hospitals.

What will my journey through Children’s Outpatients be like?

You will be given an appointment time to attend. Please arrive on time for your appointment and allow one hour to park if you are driving.

On arrival please go to the reception desk to register your arrival. When you have registered, a member of the team will weigh and measure the height of your child. You will then take a seat in the waiting room until you are called into the appropriate clinic room by a member of the medical team.  

Telephone and video appointments

We are now able to offer certain appointments via video/telephone. We use ‘Attend Anywhere’ technology to do video consultations between you and your child’s clinician.  You will be sent a link to follow to join the ‘virtual waiting room’, and a leaflet advising you of tips to make this work as smoothly as possible.  If possible, please try to weigh and measure your child at home before the virtual appointment.

Please note that your child should be present during the telephone/video appointment. If for any reason this is not possible, the appointment should be re-arranged. If our clinician contacts you and your child is not present they may have to reschedule the appointment when your child is present.

If you would prefer a telephone call, please contact the Outpatient Department in advance of your appointment to arrange this – we are not able to contact every patient who does not appear in the ‘virtual waiting room’.

What if my child needs medications?

At your appointment your child may be given a prescription. This will need to be taken to Boots Pharmacy within the hospital to be dispensed. Unfortunately, the prescriptions cannot be dispensed from any other pharmacy. 

If you had a virtual consultation, we can have the prescription delivered to your nearest Boots Pharmacy, please flag this up with the clinician in your appointment if this would be helpful.

How to refer

If you are a GP looking for information about making a paediatric referral, please see our dedicated page on paediatric referrals for healthcare professionals.