Nurse to speak at world event

A top children's nurse is to speak at a worldwide conference about an innovative clinic that has helped slash back hospital admissions for youngsters in Staffordhire.

Kim Wooliscroft will talk about the area's nurse-led clinic for children with bowel disease, which has reduced by 98 per cent the number of youngsters needing to be admitted to hospital for treatment.

Mid Staffordshire General Hospitals NHS Trust launched the clinic at Staffordshire General and Cannock Chase hospitals three years ago.

Kim, an advanced nurse practitioner and directorate manager for the trust's paediatric department, has been invited to deliver a paper at the Paediatric International Conference in Athens on August 24.

She said: "We see around four new young patients with bowel disease a week and have a total of 180 children on our books. Nutritious.

"The idea of the clinic was that health visitors, school nurses or GPs could refer children directly to us and they would be seen by a nurse specialist in bowel disease, as well as a dietician.

"We could recommend treatment for them and give information and advice on diet, which is particularly important as eating proper nutritious food, including plenty of fruit and vegetables, is a major part of having a healthy digestive system.

"By educating and empowering families to manage their children's condition themselves, we found we were improving the quality of life for these patients and keeping them out of hospital.

"We're now investigating the possibility of taking this service out from the hospital into a community setting, closer to patients' homes."

Trust chief executive Martin Yeates said: "It is wonderful news that Kim has been invited to speak to an international audience of paediatric specialists about a service that we pioneered.

"It's a big honour for the trust and a great tribute to Kim and her team."