The Children’s Department at the West Suffolk Hospital consists of Paediatric Outpatients , which is on the ground floor. The new Children's Assessment Unit ( CAU ) and the Rainbow Ward F1 , both of which are on the first floor.

Paediatric Out-patients

This is a self-contained unit with a waiting and play area as well as treatment and consulting rooms. When attending, every child is weighed and measured.

There are various consultants’ clinics for initial referral and follow up appointments.  As well as general paediatric clinics, there are specialist diabetic, respiratory, orthopaedic, genetic, cardiac, urology and endocrine clinics. 

West Suffolk Hospital treat children with a wide variety of acute and long-term conditions, including children with cancer. We are part of the Children’s Cancer Services Network Group and work with Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge as our principal treatment centre.

Children's Assessment Unit ( CAU )

Stairs or a lift give access from Paediatric Out-Patients’ Department up to the new Children's Assessment Unit ( CAU ). This is our new short-stay facility where children are assessed and treated. The goal is that the majority of children do not require admission but can be discharged home after period of observation and treatment. This new area included a new nursing triage room and new child friendly CAU waiting area next to a large playroom. Facilities on the new CAU include a treatment/assessment room as well as  five open bay cubicles and four individual rooms. If your child requires admission they can be moved next door to the Rainbow F1 inpatient ward. 

    

           

 

Rainbow Ward F1

The ward is a 12-bedded unit - five beds in a bay and the remainder in seven side rooms including two high dependency beds. One parent or carer can stay with a patient. On the ward there are folding beds beside every patient’s bed. All side-rooms have a bed or a cot for the patient and a bed for whoever is staying with him/her.

                         

In the Children's Assessment Unit children are assessed to see if they need to be admitted to the ward or, after a short period of observation or treatment, are able to go home. There is a disabled and a children’s toilet, two bathrooms, a pantry, laundry room and a parents’ room. There is also a treatment room and consultants’, doctors’, sisters’ and secretaries’ offices.

On admission you will be taken around the ward to familiarise you with the facilities.

For more information, see: A tour of the Children`s Department|| .

Pre-admission Programme and Saturday Club

80% of the admissions are emergencies.  In order to help prepare children for a possible visit to hospital there is a Pre-admission Programme and Saturday Club|.