Mary Sheridan Medical Centre or other places for preemie care?

[sassafrassj]

Hiya.

I'm new to the UK (from the U.S.) and trying to find out about services here in London for my preemie niece (who just had her first birthday). She lives in Ukraine, but may travel to London for care.

She has ROP and has had surgery for it but is not likely to have much sight. Her parents are looking for a place that does training for parents of babies with retinopathy. They would ideally also like to find somewhere that could do more comprehensive assessments of her development and recommend other treatment if needed. In particular, they are concerned about developmental issues.

Someone recommended the Mary Sheridan Medical Centre, but I'm open to suggestions of other places or info about experiences with that one.

Thanks!

Hi there, really not sure what the position is for children from outside the EU, plus IME the docs doing research/rehab work with prem babies don't tend to practice privately.

DD was born at Queen Charlotte's/Hammersmith Hospital who do quite a lot of work on neurological issues affecting prems. As far as I know, UCH and St Thomas's (also teaching hospitals and hospitals that care for the sickest babies) would also be places to contact. I would be inclined to contact the professor of Neonatology in each case - if they don't think they can take her on then they are likely to be able to say who can. I think that for form's sake that it needs to be the little girl's parents/guardians who make the contact.

HTH

Imperial College Healthcare has an excellent neonatal unit and developmental follow up service. They also have a family centred approach which I am sure your relatives would appreciate. I would suggest that you contact the Ophthalmology department and/or child development centre as your niece is now a year old. Your situation is not uncommon and the hospital will have be used to taking these types of inquiries. Look up the contact details up on the web

We just moved last year to London from NYC and didn't get much help in terms of therapy services as we did back in NYC. We have an Occupational Therapist who works on whole body skills as well as fine motor and sensory integration. We pay out-of-pocket for this once a week and she comes to our house but she's very good about teaching me how to work with our son and giving me exercises to do, and she also does hands-on work with Ollie. Her site is: www.ot4kids.co.uk

We know that mostly Physical Therapists work with premature children but we had an OT in NYC and she was great about looking at overall development which is why we looked for this here in the UK too. Fortunately, our OT is trained in the US and has an approach we're used to.

Hope this helps.
Zoe