We are specialist children’s doctors (Paediatricians), nurses and possibly other specialist professionals who have expertise in a range of medical and developmental conditions, including complex disability.
Clinics may be held in Health Centres or Hospital settings. We see children and young people aged 0-18 years.
The Community Paediatric teams in Nottinghamshire cover different areas, e.g. Bassetlaw cover Bassetlaw and Retford areas. Nottingham University Hospitals cover South Nottinghamshire County and City, and Sherwood Forest Hospitals cover Mansfield/Ashfield/Newark and Sherwood. Services may be very slightly different in these areas due to different structures and arrangements.
What might community paediatricians see?
- Concerns about development and late milestones in young children
- Complex physical and/or learning disability requiring medical management.
- Concerns about genetic conditions or specific syndromes.
- Children with brain injury, extreme preterm, or hearing / vision impairment who require assessment / ongoing input.
- Some General paediatric medical problems (e.g. growth concerns, possible seizures, complex constipation or enuresis, heart murmurs etc.)
- Assessment for ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Developmental Coordination Disorder or Tics. Ongoing medical management is offered if this is needed.
- Statutory health assessments for children in care
- Medical assessments where there are concerns that a child or young person has been abused.
- Children who are at or near the end of their life offered (mainly at NUH).
We do often get asked about other issues such as educational worries, general behaviour, anxiety and sleep. Whilst we may not be the most appropriate service to address these, if you have concerns please discuss this with the doctor or nurse you see, as they may be able to direct you to the most appropriate service.
What to expect at your appointment
It is important that a child or young person is accompanied by someone with parental responsibility, unless they are over 16 years and choose to come on their own. Older children who come with a parent may be offered time with a clinician alone as part of their appointment with us.
Clinic appointments are offered in medical settings, as we see a range of children in each clinic and may need to examine children and young people due to their clinical needs. Waiting spaces may be used by a range of people for different clinics in the location, please do speak to the reception team if you have any concerns.
The Community Paediatrician will usually ask questions about your child’s health and may do a medical check-up which may include height, weight, and blood pressure checks. Sometimes children need blood tests or other investigations, this might take place on the day or be arranged for another time.
If you wish to speak to us separately from your child, please bring someone with you to look after your child in the waiting area. If you feel before or during the appointment that there is something you would like to share privately please do contact the admin team on the number on your referral letter, and they can advise how this information can be shared with the clinician.
Your child may be seen by any member of the paediatric team and a student may be present. You will have an allocated amount of time with the doctor or member of the team, whilst we try to run on time, sometimes there are urgent problems that can impact on this. Thank you for being patient if this is the case.
Let us know as soon as possible if you cannot attend / wish to change an appointment, or your contact details / address change.
At the end of your appointment, we will ensure you understand arrangements for follow up if this is needed, provide you with relevant information for you to take away and ensure you understand what has been discussed in the appointment. After the appointment we will provide you with a letter summarising the consultation.
We see children with all sorts of different medical conditions. Some conditions can be more complicated and take longer to be clear if a diagnosis is appropriate or not than for other conditions, for example it is much easier to diagnose, treat and manage constipation than to assess if a child has autism. This means that you may need to attend several appointments with us before we can reach a diagnostic conclusion. Sometimes we may need to offer a joint appointment with another professional, such as a speech and language therapist or psychologist. These waiting times will be longer. It is important that we can answer your questions accurately to best support your child or young person.
Children/Young people are discharged from Community Paediatric clinics if there are no ongoing medical needs that require specialist input. We can direct you to other support services who can provide appropriate care if there are ongoing wider needs.
What else might we do?
Community paediatricians offer holistic assessments for your child or young person. This means that we are likely to ask about all aspects of their life and well-being. We like to think about how we can enable children and young people to succeed. As part of this we also provide a role where we help to support co-ordinating your child’s medical care, especially when this is complex. Examples of how we might support you include:
- Attending multi-disciplinary meetings to support the best interests of your child where this is needed (including liaison with other therapists involved in your child’s care)
- Signposting to other services- there are many services that parents can now self-refer to and we can let you know about these, or local workshops/drop ins.
- Referrals into other NHS and local authority services, for example ophthalmology, physiotherapy, speech therapy. Other services can make some of these referrals for you too, especially if you are between appointments with us.
- Writing medical advice for an EHCP
- Liaison with social care, other health teams (for example your GP, CAMHS) and education where needed to support your child, with your consent.
Senior doctors in our team also have some statutory roles, for example in supporting the area of Nottinghamshire and Nottingham City in SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities), adoption and safeguarding from a strategic perspective. This ensures that we work with our local area to help shape services to meet the needs of our communities.
Please note that we are not able to recommend private providers.
Find out more about your local Community Paediatric Service here: