Transport of critically ill and injured children
This Service provides a safe and effective method of transport for children who present to hospitals across Scotland, who require admission to paediatric intensive care. The two retrieval teams are based in the paediatric intensive care units (PICUs) in the Royal Hospitals for Sick Children (RHSC) in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The specialised teams consist of nurses and doctors who have undertaken additional training to facilitate the safe transfer of these children; either from the referring hospital to PICU, back to the referring hospital, or to a hospital out with Scotland for very specialist care.
The two teams operate to provide a single service and as well as the transport element of this service, the teams also provide advice and support to clinicians in hospitals across Scotland. Advice accounts for 25-30% of all referrals made to the joint service. This telephone service is supported by the Scottish National Paediatric Retrieval Service external website.
The teams provide outreach education and feedback sessions to hospitals throughout the year. This programme has been extended to provide training and education to staff in remote and rural areas, via the Mobile Skills Unit, in a joint project with NHS Education for Scotland.
Lead clinicians:
Dr David Rowney, Lead Retrieval Consultant, Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh
Dr Andrew McIntyre, Lead Retrieval Consultant, Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow
Service contact address (Edinburgh):
Paediatric Intensive Care Unit
Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh
9 Sciennes Road
Edinburgh
EH9 1LF
Service contact address (Glasgow):
Paediatric Intensive Care Unit
Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow
Dalnair Street
Glasgow
G3 8SJ
National Services Division contacts:
To contact members of NSD staff, please visit our staff contacts page.
Mel Miller, Programme Manager
