Ward 76 – Paediatric Elective Treatment Centre

The ward is split into three areas:

• Day Case
• Medical Investigations
• Short Stay

These areas cater for over ninety children a day which are under one or more of the twenty-three specialties we have within the hospital.  This means the nursing team require a large knowledge base in a range of conditions, treatments and managing patients postoperatively.

Admissions to Ward 76

On average, 60-90 patients attend Ward 76 each day. Patients are admitted for planned scheduled care, which can either be medical, surgical or diagnostic procedures.

If your child is being admitted for a surgical procedure, you will initially be seated in a waiting area and transferred to theatre from there. Following your child’s surgery, they will go to a bed or trolley within the department. Sometimes they will not return to Ward 76; they may go to another ward, or can be discharged home from theatre. If this is the case you will be informed this is happening before your child goes to theatre.

When coming into hospital for surgery, it is essential you follow the instructions in your child’s letter about starving times; failure to do so is likely to result in the procedure being postponed to a new date. On arrival onto the unit you will be seen by a nurse, anaesthetist and a doctor. You will be asked a variety of questions and to sign the consent form if you have not previously completed this in outpatients.

There can be up to 8 theatre lists occurring at one time from Ward 76. You will potentially see many patients being taken to theatre before it is your child’s turn; the nursing team will aim to keep you up to date on progress through the lists.

After theatre your child will be allowed to eat and drink, unless the medical team have said otherwise. After a period of observation (usually 2 hours) you may be discharged home.

The medical investigations and waiting room area is nurse led, caring for patients attending for diagnostic procedures to determine their diagnosis or treatment required, and for patients having regular infusions or injections.

Other procedures which occur in medical investigations are taking blood, removal of dressings, catheters and plasters.