Children's day surgery unit celebrates first anniversary

The award-winning children's day surgery unit at Evelina London Children's Hospital has celebrated the first anniversary since treating its first patient.

Chloe Morley, now 11, was the first patient to be treated in the brand-new facility when it opened on 12 July 2023. Chloe, from Eltham in south east London, had her tonsils and adenoids removed.

Mum Loran said: "Chloe was so excited to be the first patient last year, and all of the staff were so nice. Chloe's made a great recovery since her operation. It's been a busy time, with lots more firsts. She's recently been away with her school for the first time, and she's preparing to move to secondary school in the autumn."

Since the unit opened, the state-of-the-art facility has treated over 2,100 children and young people from across the south east of England.

Housed in the new Children's Day Treatment Centre, the space-themed unit has 2 operating theatres dedicated to day surgery. Families wait less on the day of surgery as pre-surgery checks, the operation, recovery and preparation for going home is done in a seamless way in one place, on the same day.

The extra capacity created by the unit has increased the number of children with complex conditions or who require an overnight stay that can be treated in the main Evelina London Children's Hospital.

Children under a variety of surgical and medical specialities are now seen in the new day surgery facility, including:

• urology
• ear, nose and throat
• general surgery
• plastic surgery
• rheumatology
• gastroenterology

For the first time, children needing eye surgery are now operated on in a dedicated children's area. Previously they were treated in the operating theatres in St Thomas' Hospital.

The team in the unit have marked several important milestones in the past year. Last December, the unit was officially opened by Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales, Evelina London's royal patron. To mark the occasion, Her Royal Highness was given a tour of the new unit and met with staff, patients undergoing procedures in the facility and their families. She was joined by Chloe and Ella Moth, an art competition winner, to cut the ribbon on the door to the unit, marking it officially open.

In March 2024, the team celebrated inspiring patient Tony Hudgell who has raised £1.8 million for Evelina London Children's Charity, half a million pounds of which went towards the children's day surgery unit. Tony has been a generous supporter of Evelina London Children's Charity for over 4 years and his fundraising efforts were commemorated in a special ceiling tile in the new unit, showing him as an astronaut with his crutches, prosthetic legs, and a name badge.

Most recently the team celebrated winning London's Best Public Sector Project from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, and will progress through to the national awards in Autumn.

James O'Brien, Director of Operations and Improvement at Evelina London, said: "We're over the moon to be celebrating our first anniversary of treating children and young people in our children's day surgery unit.

We are so pleased to have operated on 2,100 children and young people in the new unit, in what has been a challenging year for the NHS, and this is testament to the hard work and dedication of our amazing team of staff. Feedback from patients and staff has been consistently fantastic on their overall experience, the team, and facility specifically.

"Our new unit is out of this world and will help us to continue providing outstanding healthcare for even more children and young people, meeting their needs now and in the future as we expand our services to provide specialist children's cancer services for the region. We look forward to working alongside children, young people and their families, as we develop some of the current vacant space in the Children's Day Treatment Centre for cancer day cases, chemotherapy, and procedures."

Designed with children and families in mind, an outer-space theme was chosen in collaboration with staff and patients to match the natural world theme of Evelina London's main children's hospital building. The multi-use building has the latest equipment and child-focused technology to help families with all aspects of their care in a fun and engaging way.

James O'Brien continued: "We put children, young people and families at the heart of everything we do, and it's great to see them using this new space. Making sure families' voices were heard was essential in designing the new unit, even down to the space-themed interiors. All 82 pieces of galactic artwork were inspired by designs drawn by children and young people."

The 6-storey Children's Day Treatment Centre was constructed by Morgan Sindall Construction, designed by ADP Architecture, and engineered by Mott MacDonald. It is located next to the Evelina London Children's Hospital building on Lambeth Palace Road.