Paediatrics

Welcome to our paediatric outpatient department and Children's Ward. 

The Paediatric department (Children's ward) provides inpatient and outpatient treatment of medical and surgical conditions, in children from birth up to the seventeenth birthday.

The Children's ward deals with medical conditions and also provides facilities for many surgical specialties. The majority of children needing surgery can be treated in Hereford.  However, surgery in young children (generally under two years of age) and specialist surgery is referred to a specialist Children’s hospital, usually Birmingham.

Both the medical and surgical specialties at The County Hospital have good links with Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Several Consultants from Birmingham also run clinics in Hereford, which saves the family travelling to Birmingham, and gives us the chance to meet the colleagues who treat our patients and discuss any important issues.

The Paediatric Outpatient department carries out general clinics and specialist clinics for various conditions. The Paediatricians also hold clinics in some of the market towns including Llandrindod, Ledbury and Ross.

For the more specialist treatments, some children are referred to Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

Visiting arrangements 

• Please check with the ward re visiting arrangements, as this is dependent on the needs of the individual patient. Whilst we have no set visiting times, we do request that meal times are protected (12pm to 1pm and 5pm to 6pm), where possible, with no visiting.
  
  
• Overnight stay - only one parent/carer can be present.
  
  

• More information regarding visiting at the Trust. 

Outline of the Department

There are 16 inpatient beds.  We offer specific paediatric nurse trained care along with a dietician, physiotherapist and play specialist. We have specific adolescent facilities including a pool table, WiFi, computers and Xbox, along with an arts and therapy room for smaller children.

Children who present to hospital are most often seen in our new Paediatric Assessment Unit, which is located within the Emergency Department on the ground floor of Hereford County Hospital.

Links with other Departments

Because the Children's Ward deals with a wide range of conditions, we have links with most other departments, particularly Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU), Theatres, A&E, Eign Suite and Birmingham Children's Hospital. We carry out outpatient services on site for some specialties i.e. Rheumatology, Cardiac Care, and Genetics.

We also work closely with the Community Child Health Department and Community Children's Nurses.

Young ambassadors help to improve hospital services

A group of primarily school aged children from Herefordshire have been invited to voice their views to help improve hospital services for young people in the county.  To find out more or if you would like to become an ambassador click here.

Other Information

We have a number of hospital based Consultant Paediatricians and offer general and specialist paediatric clinics in hospital and general outreach clinics in Herefordshire and in Wales. These specialist services are listed against the Consultants in the contacts. The Community Paediatric team is based in the Child Development Centre (CDC) and delivers community outreach clinics within the county.  We have paediatric physiotherapy and occupational therapy teams based at the Benet Building, Belmont.

Childrens Ward Mural

Click here to view the magical wonderland mural on the children's ward

Pre-operative assessment short film and welcome guide

The play team has created a short preparation film for children and young people undergoing general anaesthetic at Hereford County Hospital. The film follows the journey of character Sam and his mum at the hospital as Sam is going to have an operation. The film shows the steps involved for day case surgery including arrival at the ward, having observations, having a general anaesthetic and recovery before going home.

The reason the play team decided to make this short film is because we wanted to create something that could be viewed by children and young people at home with their families or carers in preparation of coming to the children’s ward for an operation.

This is something that can viewed again and again if necessary and will hopefully help patients to understand the processes of having a general anaesthetic and what to expect during a typical day surgery admission.

At the beginning of this project we pitched the idea to the children’s ward young ambassador group as we wanted to use their ideas and vision for the film.

The young ambassadors did a fantastic job and we are really pleased with the outcome. We really hope this helps the children and young people of Herefordshire to feel prepared and educated about their upcoming operation.

Please also see below the Welcome guide book for children staying in hospital.

Welcome guide book for children staying in hospital

We have created a Welcome book for children and young people staying on our children’s Ward at Hereford County Hospital.  

The booklet will explain some important things we think you might like to know about the Children’s Ward.  We hope you find it useful

Welcome book for children

Welcome book for young people

Tour of children’s ward

We appreciate that coming into hospital can be a difficult time for children and their families. The video below is aimed at preparing children for their visit to our hospital. We hope that they will have a better idea of what to expect when visiting or attending our children’s ward. And the film stars some of our lovely patients: Alesha, Imogen, Chloe and Misha. The film was produced by Hereford College Students Ben Harrison, Alex Wilson, George Weston, and Tom Pullen.