Sheffield Children’s welcomes twin city Mayor

Sheffield Children’s was delighted to welcome Mayor Oleksandr Symchyshyn and Deputy Mayor Mykola Vavryshchuk of Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine, to Sheffield Children’s this week. They were greeted by Chief Executive Ruth Brown and Sleep Consultant Dr Kelechi Ugonna as they arrived, bonding over the wonderful sunshine that has also arrived in the city over the last few days and talked all things children’s healthcare here in Sheffield and in Ukraine.

The Mayor and Deputy Mayor then visited the world-leading Sleep Service at Sheffield Children’s, where they heard from Specialist Clinical Sleep Physiologists Ruth Kingshott and Kirsty Allott. They learnt all about how the team delivers outstanding care for children and young people with sleep apnoea, insomnia, narcolepsy and other sleep disorders. The Sheffield Children’s Sleep Service is also home to the UK’s first and only paediatric “Sleep House” – a five-bed, home-from-home sleep unit designed to ensure a comfortable, child-friendly environment whilst undergoing tests.

This is not the first time that Sheffield Children’s has hosted friends from Sheffield’s twin city. Last summer we hosted Dr Viktoriya Betsal and Dr Anastasiia Sabadosh, also from Khmelnytskyi. The pair visited as part of a programme led by the Children’s Hospital Alliance to bring paediatric clinicians from hospitals in Ukraine to England for training. During their stay, they also visited our Sleep Service, learning key skills which have supported them in setting up their own specialist paediatric sleep provision in Khmelnytskyi.

We’d like to thank the Mayor and Deputy Mayor for their visit – we’re excited to continue growing this partnership between our two cities.