Funding provided for additional Paediatric Palliative Care consultants at our Children's Hospital
Our Children’s Hospital is to become a training hospital in Paediatric Palliative Care and will be providing training for two new consultants thanks to support from charity.
The funding will double the number of existing roles in the region and is provided by Molly Ollys, which is donating more than £310,000 to our Children’s Hospital Charity to cover two years of training, supported by corporate supporters, Oakland International.
Molly Ollys, which supports children with life-threatening illnesses and their families, funded the region’s first ever consultant in paediatric palliative medicine between 2017 and 2020, since when the post has been permanently incorporated by the NHS.
There are currently only 25 such speciailists in the UK. Nationally there is a shortage of between fifty to sixty consultants within this specialist Paediatric Palliative Medicine community service which helps enable patients to live their best life.
The funding has been particularly welcomed by Children’s Hospital’s current consultants Yifan Liang and Christine Mott.
Yifan said: “With the current consultant numbers, we are only capturing the most needy children and there’s a lot more need that we could be addressing.
“This vital business funding will enable us to provide the capacity to serve families better through planning, clinical reviews and which will be more sustainable for everyone concerned.
“Thanks to Molly Ollys, Oakland International, our own hospital charity and other corporate businesses supporting this much needed initiative, we are starting to see change and helping families in the way they want and need for the short and long term, and getting the end results for individuals as we roll it out and help more people.”
Molly Olly's was also involved in the furnishing of Magnolia House after our Children’s Hospital Charity reached its £1m target to create a safe and non-clinical space inside the hospital where medical teams and families can have important life-changing discussions.
Molly Ollys was established following the death of Rachel and Tim Ollerenshaw’s eight-year-old daughter Molly from a rare kidney cancer and marked its tenth anniversary last year.
Rachel said: “The need for Consultant-led Paediatric Palliative care is far more important than many realise and primarily that is the case because it is a world that few people fortunately have inhabited.
“We are delighted that we can continue this project with Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity with the funding of training for two more consultants. From zero to four in a seven-year period is a big step change and will have a positive long term impact for palliative children in the West Midlands and surrounding areas."