Our Allied Healthcare Professionals

Occupations give meaning and purpose to our lives at all stages. They include the things that people want to, need to or are expected to do.

Occupational Therapists (OT) work from an understanding there is a relationship between the things that people do and their health and wellbeing, so whilst the type of practice you will see our OTs completing in our different services may look quite different, they are all working with the in-depth understanding of the occupation. 

Ots use their unique training that draws on anatomy and physiology, psychology and sociology, occupational therapy knowledge and skills, creative and management skills, therapeutic interventions, environmental adaptations and research methods and applications to support performance and participation in occupation.​

The team consists of both registered and non-registered staff who work across approximately 20 clinical specialities.

Most are based in Parson’s House but others are in their specialities department areas, such as Oncology in Waterfall House and Burns in the department’s therapy room.

Occupational Therapists enable people to perform and participate in their occupations by enhancing their skills and abilities, modifying the occupation and/or the environment and ensuring

The earliest documented origins of actual Physiotherapy as a professional group date back to Per Henrik Ling – ‘Father of Swedish Gymnastics’   - who founded the Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics (RCIG) in 1813 for massage, manipulation and exercise.

In 1887, Physiotherapists were given official registration by Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare. Other countries soon followed and in 1894 four nurses in Great Britain formed the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.

​Physiotherapy helps to restore movement and function when someone is affected by injury, illness or disability. They have key roles leading on clinics, inpatient and outpatient care.

Our team work 24/7, 365-days a year through our out of hours respiratory service. Colleagues are based on the ground floor of Parsons House, opposite our Emergency Department.

The team is comprised of registered and non-registered staff delivering care across four main specialities:

Acute (Respiratory)

Medical Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, Liver/Oncology​, Cystic Fibrosis, Asthma​, Primary Cilia Dyskinesia, Bronchiectasis​ and Long-term Ventilation

 

Neonates​, Neurosurgical​, Neuromedical​, Metabolic Diseases,

Musculoskeletal

Outpatients, Inpatient Trauma and Orthopaedics, Ortho Oncologyheumatology, Osteogenesis Imperfecta.

Women’s Health

Urogynaecology and Obstetrics

Our teams deliver personalised care to our women, children and young people - with the benefits greater than the footprint of our department or number of staff.

The profession started in 1895 with the invention of X-rays. ​

Imaging is a unique role in patient care as it’s often the first intervention patients will have on attendance at hospital.

Imaging is the hub of the hospital providing care to children and young people from a vast number of specialities; supporting the provision of a diagnosis for future medical care.

Being caring and supportive for patients and their loved ones is at the forefront of the team’s work.

Our team provide 24/7 imaging for all specialities and is situated in the main Children’s Hospital building on the ground floor. ​

Sub-specialities of imaging are: MRI, CT, Ultrasound, Plain Film, Theatres, Cardiac and Interventional Angiography​. Additionally, the team also provides radionuclide imaging.

The team is always caring and supportive towards their patients, their comforters and carers.​

Operating Department Practice is very much in its infancy when compared to doctors, nurses and midwives - some of the oldest professions in modern history.  In fact, the origins of ODPs can only loosely be traced back as far as Victorian beadles and box carriers who often played an assisting role to surgeons of the time. 

The modern-day profession has been formally recognised since 1971 following a report by Robert Lewin, which recognised a shortfall of nurses within operating theatres.  This consequently led to the requirement for extra specialism within the operating department to try and reduce increasing waiting list times.

ODP is a three-year degree, with both apprenticeship and direct entry routes via university being available.

ODPs work in anaesthetics, surgery, recovery, external airway support in our Emergency Department (ED), MRI and any other areas where a general anaesthetic may be required. ​

Theatres cover different areas – Neuro, Cardiac, Angio, Craniofacial, ENT, Ophthalmic, PMBTS, Spines, Orthopaedic, Trauma, Emergencies, Burns, Plastics, General, Laparoscopic, MRI, Oncology, Endoscopy, A&E, arrest calls and Dental​.

​ODPs are adaptable, being able to work across three disciplines in theatres and assist in other external areas such as ED or our Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. The role of the ODP is becoming increasingly diverse with opportunities in clinical specialism and academia.

Orthoptists are specialists in assessing vision and the alignment of the eyes. Our team diagnose and treat a wide range of vision and eye muscle conditions. Some orthoptists also specialise in more complicated ophthalmological conditions. We have one orthoptist who specialises in retinoblastoma (a form of eye cancer), one who specialises in uveitis (inflammation of the eye), one in glaucoma (high pressure inside the eye) and one in abnormal optic nerves.

We are a specialist centre for babies and children who wear contact lenses for medical reasons. For example, babies who have had cataract surgery. Some of our orthoptists specialise in handling these contact lenses and they also teach parents how to insert and remove their child’s contact lenses safely.

In our Eye Department we have a clinical team made up of ophthalmologists, optometrists, orthoptists and nurses.

Orthoptists differ from optometrists (also known as ophthalmic opticians) who can prescribe glasses and contact lenses and also from ophthalmologists (also known as eye doctors) who can perform eye surgery.

At our Children’s Hospital most patients see either just an orthoptist, or an orthoptist and then an optometrist or ophthalmologist on the same day.

All orthoptists perform vision and eye muscle tests to identify and manage any problems with sight or binocular vision. They  also take different types of images of the eyes to help the optometrists and ophthalmologists determine the health of the different structures of the eye. We can also help families put drops into the eyes in preparation for the optometrist/ophthalmologist’s examination.

Orthoptists are part of a cohesive multi-disciplinary paediatric ophthalmology team, who all work together to make sure our patients have the best vision possible, ensuring they can fulfil their potential and live happy, healthy lives.

Speech and Language therapy is a treatment that helps people with communication and swallowing difficulties. Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) provide a highly specialist service across a variety of conditions including young people with​ ​trache/long term ventilation ensuring airway and respiratory rehabilitation, facilitating weaning from ventilation and supporting decannulation, as well as enabling infants, children, young people to reach their potential for safe feeding, swallowing and effective communication.​

​Speech and Language Therapists work across inpatient wards, caring for patients from Neonates to 18-year-olds, enabling safe and positive feeding and swallowing, as well as rehabilitating and/or compensating for acquired communication needs.​

​Lysosomal Storage Disorder – We are one of the supra-regional centres focusing on maximising young people’s quality of life in relation to their communication, feeding and swallowing.​

​Craniofacial – We are one of the supra-regional centres for children with conditions affecting the growth of the head and face, which may subsequently impact on feeding, swallowing, speech, language and communication development.​

​​Neonates – SLTs can facilitate positive feeding experiences and support feeding development from the beginning of the parent and infant’s feeding journey to reduce the risk of known prolonged feeding difficulties.

They have a role in assessment and management of, and in supporting families, to promote effective early communication and interactions with their pre-term and sick infants, improving early attachment and bonding and maximising speech, language and communication outcomes post discharge and beyond into adolescence. ​

Voice – SLTs provide a detailed, complex assessment, management, treatment and advice in respect of a wide range of complex ENT-related conditions, including psychogenic voice disorder, paradoxical vocal fold dysfunction (PVFD), airway reconstruction and congenital and acquired paediatric ENT pathology. ​

Cleft Palate – SLTs provide specialist assessment and management of patients with a cleft palate and/or velopharyngeal speech dysfunction. This is part of the West Midlands multi-disciplinary cleft service and is one of 11 services across UK and Northern Ireland.

Videofluoroscopic Swallow Study (VFSS) – SLTs provide a highly specialist, instrumental assessment service of highly complex dysphagia disorders to support holistic decision making around oral feeding.​

​CAMHS – SLTs provide specialist assessment, advice, support and management in relation to a young person’s speech language and social communication needs, including in relation to neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism, to contribute to the differential diagnosis, care and recovery of young people presenting with significant psychiatric difficulties.