12 November 2022
Today Sheffield Children’s teamed up for Super Saturday – a nationwide partnership to help children and young people access the care and support they need and reduce delays.
During the day we worked alongside other children’s hospitals across the country to offer additional clinics, extra surgery and to provide families with health advice out in the community. The latter will support practices like healthy eating and good dental care – heading off potential future health issues.
Super Saturdays were created in response to the challenges created by the COVID pandemic, including increased waiting lists. 75 surgical procedures and more than 400 outpatient appointments are planned through this Super Saturday.
Sheffield Children’s carried out extra spinal surgery and eye procedures, focusing on patients who have been waiting the longest and holding extra clinics for rheumatology patients and the chronic lung condition bronchiectasis.
Sixteen-year-old Jack came to the bronchiectasis clinic today where he saw a doctor, nurse, physiotherapist and physiologist in one appointment. Bronchiectasis is a long-term condition where the airways of the lungs become widened, leading to a build-up of excess mucus that can make the lungs more vulnerable to infection.
Jack said: “Bronchiectasis affects me all the time and I will have it for the rest of my life. It’s very useful being able to come to an appointment on a Saturday because I don’t miss any school or feel like I have to rush back for it. It’s also a lot easier being able to see everyone together rather than having to go to different places.”
Dr Alison Scott, Consultant in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine, was one of the clinicians running the bronchiectasis clinic today. Dr Scott said: “We’ve been really lucky that we could use Super Saturday to combine appointments by bringing clinicians into the same room at the same time.
“We’ve had great feedback from parents today who said they didn’t have to miss work and that children and young people didn’t have to miss school. Super Saturday is a great opportunity to help patients to be healthier and save them a significant amount of time.”
As well as running extra clinics and surgery, Sheffield Children’s colleagues were out in the community working with families on ways to stay safe and healthy.
At Meadowhall, our 0-19 Team and Dietetics colleagues provided families with advice around healthy eating and staying active. Children and young people put this advice into action by using the pedal power of a smoothie bike to make their own fruit drink!
Colleagues from the 0-19 Team were also at Darnall Library talking to families about healthy lifestyles, and the Violence Reduction Team taught useful basic safety tips like CPR and how to control bleeding.
Thank you to everyone who stopped by to see us and all colleagues who took part in Super Saturday. We hope our NHS colleagues across the country also had a great Super Saturday!
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