Arrowe Park Hospital
Wirral
Types of job
Arrowe Park Hospital neonatal unit is tier 3 care and so the rotations are separate, either general paediatrics or neonates. The neonatal job would be counted as your ‘neonates placement’. Community paediatrics is available there and on calls would be either in general paediatrics or neonates.
Size of department
One inpatient ward with 16 inpatient beds and 9 day case beds
Paediatric assessment unit, which is based in Accident and Emergency Department has 8 beds
The neonatal unit has 7 Intensive care cots, a high dependency unit and a special care unit.
Rota intensity/frequency of shifts
Generally Arrowe Park has a good (low) rota intensity. Rota varies each rotation based on number of registrars. There rarely are any rota gaps. There are also 6 ANPs who are able to cover shifts if needed.
Every rotation there are 2 paediatrics trainee SHOs, 3 F2s and usually 4-5 GP trainees, and around 10 registrars.
How busy is job – average
Arrowe park is a good mix of busy and quiet, it is busy enough to learn a lot and get good experience although it is rare to feel overwhelmed and there also are often days where it is pretty quiet. The nights shifts are generally quite quiet.
Positive points
Very supportive team, consultants are all very nice. Generally quite a relaxed nice atmosphere.
Average driving commute from Liverpool centre rush hour v out of hours
Around 20-50 minutes depending on traffic. Have to cross the tunnel every day, if live in Liverpool, can get a ‘fast tag’ pass for that (then is £1 per trip). You can claim this money back from the deanery
Public transport
Regular buses from city centre Liverpool (by the metquarter). Runs every 10 minutes in the day and every 20-30 minutes in the evening. (471/472).Takes around 30 minutes and bring you directly to the hospital. Train also possible but does not bring you as close as the bus does.
Cycle facilities
Lockable cycle storage available but easier to use bike loops by entrance to Women’s and Children’s ground floor which are under shelter. Shower available in the paediatric mess.
Hospital accommodation
The mess is quite small.
Accommodation is available if needed while on nights etc, this can be arranged via the rota coordinator.
Rota coordinator contact details
Sarah Finney - Sarah.finney1@nhs.net
Any special interests particularly catered to?
There are a good variety of clinics at Arrowepark, and the consultants are keen for people to attend clinic when possible. Consultant specialist interests include CF, allergy, cardiology, epilepsy, diabetes and endocrine and gastroenterology.
Normal day on general paediatrics:
The day starts with a safety huddle at 09.00. This consists of all the doctors, the nurse in charge, one nurse from each team and the pharmacist. The nurse in charge briefly recaps each patient to ensure there is no one sick who needs to be prioritised. It is also a time where any issues overnight or the previous day can be mentioned.
The doctors then handover, the SHO is given the opportunity to handover with the support from the registrars if needed. All patients are handed over to the day team doctors.
The registrars and the consultant will then spilt the ward round and the shos will join either the consultant or registrar and type for them/carry out ward jobs. Following ward round there is another handover of patients, and an opportunity for registrar to discuss patients with consultants, this handover includes tea and biscuits! By this stage there will usually be a few patients to be seen in the paediatric assessment unit. Usually one SHO will carry out ward jobs unless it is particularly busy or registrar is needed and the rest of the team will go to PAU to start clerking patients.
Two days a week an SHO will go to the postnatal unit and carry out the baby checks, if they have any problems they will speak to the neonatal registrar.