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Children’s Hospital at Home Southampton and South West Hampshire (CH@H)
We are a team of paediatric nurses and doctors with specialist skills and experience in caring for children and young people. Our nurses are dedicated to providing care for children and young people with acute and short-term health needs at home, and in other community settings. We are a referral only service, and work closely with the medical team at the hospital and GPs in the community.
We aim to....
- Prevent and minimise admissions to hospital
- Facilitate early discharge from hospital wherever possible
- Provide advice and practical support for children and their families in the self-management of acute and short term health conditions
- Promote the physical, psychological and emotional wellbeing of children and young people in their own environment
Our initial contact with you to assess your child will be by telephone. Following on from this, we may need to visit your home to assess your child face-to-face. We will agree and arrange any follow up contacts with you depending on your child's needs.
Our team will work together with other health professionals to ensure we can provide you and your child the best care of acute and short-term health conditions in the most appropriate place.
Our team work closely with the Community Children’s Nursing Team and provide some essential care outside of their hours to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.
If you need to contact us, we have a secure answerphone which is checked regularly throughout the service opening hours. When leaving a message please give your name, child's name, telephone number along with your message.
Referral criteria
We are a referral only service. Referrals must meet the following criteria:
• The child or young person must be aged between 0 and 18-years-old
• The child or young person must be living and registered with a GP within the Southampton City or South West Hampshire Locality (excluding Avon Valley, Eastleigh and Chandlers ford).
Referrals can be made by a GP or by the Paediatric Team at the hospital.
Full service description
The CH@H are a team of paediatric nurses and consultant paediatricians. The nursing team have specialist skills and experience in nursing children at home, they work alongside GPs and other practitioners within primary, community and secondary care. Our aim is to keep children and young people (CYP) healthy and safe in, or close to, their own homes. We provide education and support to help minimise the disruption to day-to-day family life. We are passionate about giving great care and working with families to support the physical, psychological and emotional wellbeing of CYP. We ensure that CYP are safe and well cared for, including parents, carers and others within the CYPs network. As part of our routine and on-going assessments we consider the needs of individual CYP and their families. We work closely with other professionals when extra help or support is needed.
Our nurses undertake practical nursing care in partnership with children and parents/carers. We also work with the Children’s Community Nursing (CCN) Service to help provide specialist paediatric nursing care for children at home with nursing needs, out of hours of their normal working hours.
Referral method
We are a referral only service. Referrals must meet the following criteria:
- The child or young person must be aged between 0 and 18-years-old
- The child or young person must be living and registered with a GP within the Southampton City or South West Hampshire excluding Avon Valley, Eastleigh Health, Chandlers ford PCNs
Referrals can be made by a GP or by the Paediatric Team at the hospital, who will maintain clinical responsibility for the child or young person and their treatment. We are currently accepting referrals for the following CH@H clinical pathways:
- Bronchiolitis
- Respiratory Tract Infection
- Gastroenteritis
- Croup
- Viral Induced Wheeze
- Asthma
Please make your referral by contacting the CH@H Duty Nurse on 0300 123 6609 and completing the following E-Referral Form.
Surgeries eligible for referrals can be found here.
Other information & documentation
The CH@H team work in collaboration with University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, working closely with the Southampton Children’s Community Nursing Service, Children’s Asthma Team and Children’s Outreach Assessment and Support Team.
Contact Information
2nd floor, Adelaide Health Centre, William Macleod Way, Southampton, SO16 4XE
Opening hours
- Monday: 10:00am - 10:00pm
- Tuesday: 10:00am - 10:00pm
- Wednesday: 10:00am - 10:00pm
- Thursday: 10:00am - 10:00pm
- Friday: 10:00am - 10:00pm
- Saturday: 10:00am - 10:00pm
- Sunday: 10:00am - 10:00pm
Special Notice
Please speak to a member of our team if you're unsure of who to contact outside of our working hours.
NHS 111 is available outside of our working hours and can help with urgent medical needs.
For any life-threatening or emergency need, please dial 999 for the emergency services.