https://www.gosh.nhs.uk/wards-and-departments/departments/clinical-specialties/tracheal-information-parents-and-visitors/refer-patient-tracheal-service/

Refer a patient to the Tracheal service

This page includes information about how to refer a patient to the Tracheal service at Great Ormond Street hospital (GOSH).

How to refer a patient

For an outpatient apointment

To refer a patient to the Tracheal team, please contact Tabetha Tabiner on the Tracheal team direct telephone number 0207 813 8217 or 0207 405 9200 bleep 0059, or e-mail tabetha.tabiner@gosh.nhs.uk. Following referral the team liaises with the referring hospital by e-mail, telephone or letter.

If the patient requires an intensive care bed, and one is not available at this institution, advice can be given to the referring hospital to enable them to treat the patient safely. The team here will be in constant communication and will plan when to take the patient.

Each new referral is discussed at the weekly Tracheal team meeting and a plan of their care and treatment is decided. When able, all procedures and tests necessary are planned prior to the patient being transferred.

Key staff

Director of Tracheal Service

Consultants

Clinical specialists

  • Alex Stewart
    Speech & Language Therapist

Administration

Services and facilities

Over the last six years, the Tracheal Service provided at Great Ormond Street Hospital, has grown into a multidisciplinary, well-organised and efficient service. The tracheal team is a multidisciplinary team which consists of specialist consultants and practitioners, in addition to an administrator who coordinates the team.

The service is able to provide bronchoscopies, bronchograms, CT and MRI scans, echocardiography and video fluoroscopy as well as expert paediatric intensive care facilities.

The team liaises with the referring hospital by e-mail, telephone or letter. If the patient requires an intensive care bed, and one is not available at this institution, advice can be given to the referring hospital to enable them to treat the patient safely. The team here will be in constant communication and will plan when to take the patient.

Each new referral is discussed at the weekly tracheal team meeting and a plan of their care and treatment is decided. When able, all procedures and tests necessary are planned prior to the patient being transferred.

The patient is admitted and a thorough assessment takes place. A further multidisciplinary meeting will evaluate the results of all tests performed and will propose a course of treatment.

This is then discussed with the family. A full and honest discussion takes place – all risks are explained, our experience and international experiences highlighted, and short and long term outcomes discussed.

The child will be cared for by an extremely experienced team that includes surgeons, nurses, physicians and professionals allied to medicine. At GOSH, the child can be treated holistically as there are various specialties all in one building.

The family is kept informed at each and every step through their child’s hospital journey. The tracheal team is very much a multidisciplinary team and believes that the patient’s family is also part of that team.

Unfortunately, surgery is not the end for these families. They will need careful follow up for the rest of their lives. Initially, this follow up will be frequent and take place at GOSH. However as time goes on, these visits will become less frequent and may alternate between GOSH and the child’s referring hospital.

The team has forged excellent links with some referral institutions – some team members have visited certain hospitals and assessed patients there; the team is always available for advice - and by doing so, has cut the length of hospital stay in this hospital. This allows precious intensive care beds to become available here, but also helps the family, especially if they live a long distance away. This shared care approach is vital in helping with the success of the Tracheal Service.

The tracheal team is also able to provide other forms of treatment such as tracheal stents and tracheostomy with or without BiPAP ventilation. Great Ormond Street Hospital is fortunate to have an interventional radiologist who has become expert in placing stents and able to dilate them to allow a larger, stronger trachea.

The numbers of children with this condition are relatively small, but the team here at GOSH has now built up a significant group and has become expert at caring for these children.