Patient information

Surgery for children

It is never easy when your child is undergoing a procedure.

The experience and skill of our staff will ensure you and your child have the best care and attention during your time with us. The information below may help guide you about how best to support your child before, during and after their procedure.

Committed to ensuring that all children have a positive experience

To help reduce any anxiety in children, it is important to give them information at a level they can understand but without too much detail that it will cause concern. If you have any questions about how to best achieve this please contact us.

Hospital admissions can be a testing time for children and their parents. It is helpful to bring your child’s favourite toys or books to keep them entertained during their stay, which may involve wait time before the procedure. You will be able to stay with your child at the start of their anaesthetic if you wish and will have the opportunity to discuss this with your anaesthetist and surgeon on the day of admission.

On the day of surgery, the focus will be on your child who is having the procedure so other distractions should be avoided. We advise that you do not bring in siblings unless you have someone with you who can care for them while your child is being admitted or during the initial post-operative time in recovery.

With your support, your child will recover more quickly and we aim to reunite parents or carers with their child as soon as possible. This will happen in our recovery room and you will be taken into this area as soon as possible. Please be aware, siblings cannot be taken into the recovery room as this is a restricted area.

We encourage a parent or carer to stay with their child overnight and will aim to provide a bed in their room, if this is not possible, a lazyboy chair will provided. You will receive refreshments, an evening meal and breakfast while staying with your child. There is an additional charge for a parent or carer to board. Please note, that we can only safely accommodate one parent or carer to stay overnight.

If your child is to be a day stay patient, the length of time that they are with us will depend on your child’s recovery and their individual needs.

Please advise us of any special dietary needs for your child well in advance so we can make arrangements with our caterers for post-operative snacks or meals. If your child requires formula or drinking cup/baby bottle, please bring this with you. In addition if your child requires nappies, we have a limited selection of sizes available so you may prefer to bring your own as it is not possible for us to stock the wide range of needs for different age groups.

Our staff are very experienced and committed to ensuring that all children have a positive experience at Kaweka Hospital so do not hesitate to ask us if you have any queries.

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