Sometimes children need a little extra reassurance for different scans, procedures and tests. We are able to provide paediatric sedation led by a skilled nurse and an intensivist clinical fellow, who are experts in providing sedation to paediatric inpatients from school age up to their 18th birthday.
If your child requires a sedated scan, test or procedure, we will ensure a calm and safe experience. Having your child calm and relaxed improves the experience for the patient and parents, but also assists in assuring good test results and procedural outcomes.
Different medications can be used by different routes but the intranasal (spray into the nostrils) has proven to be effective and safe, without causing irritation to the mucosa. Although paediatric sedation is not a general anaesthesia, we aim to achieve minimal to moderate sedation, hence your child still needs to be assessed as they may not be clinically suitable to receive this method safely.
Once your child is referred to our service, we will liaise with you to ensure we know their needs and your expectations, as we want to guarantee the best possible patient centred experience.
Most procedures, scans and tests will last approximately 60 minutes, however we will provide more individualised timings on the pre-assessment phone call. Once the procedure is completed, your child will recover in the paediatric ward, monitored exclusively by a nurse, until they are awake, and the vital signs remain stable within their age limits. As soon as your child is able to eat and they return to their normal state of alertness, they will be discharged, usually 2 hours after returning to the ward.