"St Albans children will be treated" (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

"St Albans children will be treated"

12:25pm Thursday 6th November 2008 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

INJURED children can still be taken to treated to Hemel Hempstead Hospital for treatment, health chiefs are insisting.

A new unit known as an urgent care centre opened at the hospital a month ago, and is gradually taking over from the traditional accident and emergency unit, which will close in March or April.

A leaflet, claiming children will no longer be treated there, which the West Hertfordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) insists is seriously misleading, has been distributed in the Hemel Hempstead area, prompting a letter to local schools from PCT chairman Stuart Bloom.

He writes: "I would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight on some misleading facts in the material, in particular the suggestion that the new urgent care centre will not treat children.

"The urgent care centre has qualified doctors on hand for those patients who need to be seen by one.

"If a child is assessed needing urgent specialist paediatric care, then they will be transferred to the emergency paediatric unit at Watford General Hospital, under clinical supervision. This system has been in place for a number of years, since paediatric in-patient services moved from Hemel Hempstead to Watford.

"Experience over this time shows that only a small number of children have been transferred to Watford in this way.

"The urgent care centre opened on the October 1 this year. In its first month it saw 2122 patients, including over 400 children - so both in policy and practice, children are being seen at the urgent care centre at Hemel Hempstead."

PCT communications boss Niall Sookoo told the Review that the urgent care centre would give appropriate treatment to injured children and adults alike from the St Albans area.