New Children's Day Surgery Unit at Evelina London

We were proud to open our state of the art Children’s Day Surgery Unit at Evelina London Children’s Hospital this summer. Designed for children who do not require an overnight stay following their treatment, this purpose-built facility has been developed with families in mind.

Family-friendly facilities under one roof

Evelina London provides care for over 70,000 families each year, with our new centre enabling an additional 2,300 children and young people to be treated annually. Two new operating theatres dedicated to day surgery, as well as a comfortable waiting lounge, frees up space in our hospital theatres for operations requiring overnight stays. This means we can provide more life-changing care to children and young people faster.

Our new centre also places everything in one family-friendly space with all steps from pre-surgery checks, operation, recovery, and preparation for going home all carried out in the same location. With children and families involved in the design of the building’s interior, we’re proud of the bright and welcoming environment we’ve created for our young patients.

Surgical specialities at Evelina London

We offer a range of surgical specialities privately at our dedicated children’s hospital, including:

• ear, nose and throat (ENT)
• general surgery (including upper and lower gastrointestinal)
• plastic surgery
• urology

Working with internationally renowned consultants, we provide our young patients with specialist, joined-up care, offering a seamless transition to our adult services at adjoining St Thomas’ Hospital, if required.

“What we’re offering here is something that will make a huge difference to our young patients,” explains Mr Simon Filson, consultant plastic surgeon and plastic surgery clinical lead at Evelina London. “This centre promotes a safe, efficient and comfortable patient journey for these children, and allows them to return home quickly.”

Our plastic surgery service is one of the largest of its kind, providing a range of treatment for birthmarks, moles and cysts, as well as scar management. Our paediatric plastic surgery team also collaborate closely with the adult plastic surgery team at St Thomas’ Hospital.

Patients visiting our Children’s Day Surgery Unit are expected to spend around three to four hours in the unit before returning home, providing a better experience on surgery day. It also improves the flow of inpatients, allowing complex patients to be seen in the main hospital to receive their care.

Treatment slots dedicated to private patients

Our dedicated children’s urology service provides specialist care for children with kidney, bladder and genitalia problems. Our urology team can treat bladder problems, urinary tract issues and genital abnormalities, as well as offering transplant management care.

The Children’s Day Surgery Unit opens up more treatment opportunities for our urology team and their patients. Mr Pankaj Mishra, consultant paediatric urologist, explains “80-90% of our urology operations are day cases, for example circumcisions for balanitis, orchidopexy for undescended testes, and treatment for hypospadias.”

“At Evelina London, our multidisciplinary teams are very well placed to offer complex services to our patients,” says Mr Mishra. We have a fixed weekly capacity in the Children’s Day Surgery Unit dedicated to private urology patients. “This allows us to see, diagnose and treat our patients very efficiently,” explains Mr Mishra.

Improved patient pathways for general surgery

Our consultant paediatric general surgeons specialise in diagnosing and managing a range of childhood conditions. From routine procedures to complex cases, we provide comprehensive care with a variety of surgeries, including for upper and lower gastrointestinal issues and thoracic conditions.

Mr Hemanshoo Thakkar, consultant paediatric surgeon at Evelina London, specialises in lower gastrointestinal and minimal access surgery. “With the opening of the Children’s Day Surgery Unit, there’s now more scope to carry out surgery for straightforward procedures like tongue ties, hernias and circumcisions,” he says. These are all treatments after which the patients can go home within just a few hours to continue their recoveries.

The Children’s Day Surgery Unit provides a quicker patient pathway from referral to treatment. “This is because complex cases are dealt with in the main hospital,” explains Mr Thakkar, “so our Day Surgery Unit is entirely dedicated to patients who can go home on the same day they have their procedures.”

World-leading equipment for complex surgeries

The centre offers the latest equipment and technology, including new digital systems to support patients through each stage of their journey, and child-focused technology to help families with all aspects of their care in a fun and engaging way.

Some of the new equipment invested in for the Children’s Day Surgery Unit includes lasers for removal of birthmarks, moles, cysts and scars. “Unlike traditional lasers which are often still used, our new lasers cater for a range of skin tones, penetrating through the top layer of melanin, but not causing reactionary, deeper pigmentation,” explains Mr Filson.

We’re proud to offer our day surgery unit patients treatment with a range of world-renowned lasers including the Vbeam Perfecta, M22 by Lumenis, and UltraPulse DUO CO2 laser. These lasers can provide treatment by augmenting blood flow and resurfacing skin and scars, managing the conditions of children with both congenital and acquired face and limb issues.

“We have also invested in new state of the art laparoscopic equipment,” says Mr Thakkar, “which gives us the ability to carry out a lot of minimally invasive surgery, further improving patients’ recovery times.”

When to refer to us

We are accepting referrals to our Children’s Day Surgery Unit from a number of patients requiring treatment from our specialists within the ENT, general surgery, plastic surgery and urology departments.

Our additional capacity within the new unit significantly reduces the time between referral and treatment for both NHS and private patients.

Contact our dedicated paediatric customer services team to learn more about treatment options available within our Children’s Day Surgery Unit at Evelina London.