Healthcare Transition Service
What is Healthcare Transition?
Healthcare Transition is the process by which we support you to navigate the healthcare system as you get older and move from paediatric to adult-based health services. It’s a process during which we will empower you to improve your knowledge, take control and achieve your potential.
Here at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust we believe that transition should be a gradual, personal process that respects you as an individual. We will always listen to your opinions and concerns and we really appreciate it when you leave feedback.
Transition isn’t just about getting you moved from children’s health services to adult health services – it’s about supporting you, as you feel the need, in all aspects of your life at what can be a challenging time.
How we do this will largely depend on you. There are numerous transition tools available to us or if you need something different, we’ll work together to create something that works for you. One really popular tool is Ready, Steady, Go which is a series of really straightforward questionnaires that help us identify any potential areas where some input may be needed.
Importantly, we’ll not rush you – transition is a slow, gradual process. We will be contactable throughout, we’ll be here for you long after you’ve transferred to adult health services – normally until you get to around 25 years of age.
In very simple terms our job is to support you & to make your life a little easier. We can be that consistent face at a time when you’re experiencing lots of change.
Service Design
The service is designed for anyone aged between 11 & 25 years of age with a long-term (sometimes called chronic) health condition. You can be referred to the service by anyone that knows you in a professional capacity – your consultant, one of the nurses on the ward or perhaps a Healthcare Assistant in outpatients.
You may have seen a poster or just heard about the service, that’s OK too. Just get in touch and we can talk about how the service can support you.
How we manage your transition after that is entirely up to you. Whether we use Ready, Steady, Go, Together For Short Lives or freestyle what we do we will always make sure that you’re at the centre of everything that we do. We can meet over the phone, by video call or face-to-face. We can create a health passport if you feel that would be useful. You might want a parent or carer to help you through the process or you might be super-independent already. If you have a learning disability you may want someone with you the whole time & if you care for someone with complex health needs, the reality may be that as parent or carer you’ll be leading the process.
We are also aware how complex the health system is & that you may work with health professionals in the community or in other Trusts. Don’t worry – we are very happy to work together with anyone important to you to ensure that your journey to adulthood is a smooth process.
Meet the team
J-P is a paediatric nurse with over 20 years’ experience in both hospitals & community health settings. He has worked in & around Amazon ward for the last 9 or 10 years.
Katie has been a paediatric nurse for 4 and a half years, with experience in the community, on the wards and in children’s intensive care.
We love to make a difference by supporting and helping young people entering the adult world; we don’t believe that having a long-term health condition should stop you from reaching your full potential.
Together we work cross-site, which means we cover anyone that accesses services at Peterborough, Huntingdon, Stamford & our community hospitals in Ely & Doddington. We can come and see you at home too.