Children's burns service

Burns intensive care is designed to provide advanced treatment for children with a burn injury. Children who need highly skilled medical attention, including close observation and the use of sophisticated monitoring equipment and comprehensive skin treatments are admitted to Burns ITU.

In each room, there is a monitor that records the child’s heart rate, blood pressure, respirations and pressure in the heart. Other specialised equipment may also be used to care for your child.

The philosophy of the unit is to provide the highest standard of burn injury care to the child, the parents and others who are directly or indirectly involved both during and after hospitalisation. Treatment is under constant review and updated subject to relevant research.

Our purpose-built children’s burns ward can take children up to the age of 16years primarily from the south east of England, but occasionally from anywhere in the country if there is a shortage of burns beds.

We can accept all types of burn injury including scalds, flame, chemical and electrical burns, as well as skin loss conditions such as scalded skin syndrome.

The ward has four side rooms and a four bedded bay for inpatients, a treatment room and bathroom. The ward will have a mix of inpatient children and children who are returning for dressing changes and various therapies.

The children’s burns ward offers the latest in burn dressings, specialised wound care, and plastic and reconstructive surgical techniques, but treatment is guided by minimising pain and trauma for the child.

We know that being in hospital with an injury can be very stressful for both the child and the family. We also know that no one knows the child as well as the parents. That’s why we take a family-centred care approach, and work in partnership with children and young people and their families in determining treatment plans. 

Every child and young person has a right to life free from abuse.

All members of staff working in our services have a professional responsibility to safeguard and protect children.

Safeguarding children (previously child protection) is a highly emotive subject, evoking strong feelings in all of us. To provide the most effective support and help for vulnerable children and their families, we have a team of specialist doctors and nurses on site.

At the Children’s Burn Ward, your child’s health and recovery are our primary concerns. We realise this is a stressful time for you, so we want to provide as much support as possible.

Depending on the severity of the burn injury, your child will be staying in either:

• Burns Intensive Care Unit (E220)
• Children’s Burn ward (E225).

Only two visitors per child are allowed at any one time. Parents may visit at any time over 24hours. One parent may stay overnight. Other visitors may visit with parents’ permission from 10am to 8pm. Parents may call at any time to check on their child’s condition.

To find out more about our wards including telephone numbers, please visit Our ward information (mse.nhs.uk)

Visiting - following strict infection prevention guidance

When someone is suffering from a burns injury or is recovering from plastic surgery, they are more vulnerable to infection.

In an effort to minimise the spread of infection, and to protect our patients, you will be asked to use the alcohol gel on entry and exit, and wear an apron whilst in the room to cover your clothes while visiting.

Please wash your hands with soap and water before leaving the patient’s room and place aprons in the bins provided.

Notify the nurse if you have a cold or other communicable disease before entering a patient’s room.

Do not visit if you have diarrhoea or vomiting. 

We have four burns consultants who lead our team of specialist doctors

We also have a team of anaesthetists who will lead on the care of the children in burns intensive care unit (ICU) and will look after your child’s pain control throughout their stay.

The nursing team is made up of of highly skilled nurses, many of them specially trained and are used to looking after children with varying degrees of burn injury and skin loss conditions. 

DREAM. BELIEVE. ACHIEVE.

The club offers support to young burn survivors and their families to help them come to terms with burn trauma and altered body image.

We organise fun activities including residential camps, days out, workshops, parties and encourage the benefits of peer support amongst members.

This support helps rebuild self-esteem, confidence and expectations after a burn injury and along the way lasting friendships are made by the children and their families whilst giving mutual support to one another.

The club is open to any child or young person under the age of 18 years old that has a been treated by a burns consultant; any young person aged 18-24 is able to join the young adult CBC group

The Children’s Burn Club is a registered charity under the umbrella of the Mid and South Essex NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust where the hospital funds all staffing costs.

This means any income raised or donated to the club goes directly to supporting the children, young people and families that need it to increase the support offered to them.

Get in touch!

You can call us on 01245 515988 or 07473374592. Alternatively, you can email mse.childrensburnsclub@nhs.net or join us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/p/Childrens-Burns-Club-100064706555154.

Welcome to Broomfield hospital in Essex, home of the St Andrew’s Center for burns and plastics which is a regional unit specialising in treating patients that have had a burn injury or have experienced a skin loss condition.

There are three burns inpatient wards one ward specifically for children one ward specifically for adults, and one Intensive Care (ITU) and High Dependency (HDU) combined ward for patients of any age. There is also a dedicated burns outpatient department here which runs adult and children's outpatients clinics.

This video has been designed for children who are beginning to think about their transition from the children's service to the adult service. Although a lot of things are the same for children and adult burn patients, there are a few differences, so we would like to take some time to talk about what happens when a patient transitions to the adult burn service.

Many young people who have had a burn injury as a child build up supportive relationships with their children's burns team and so having to move on can be a scary prospect, but it can be an exciting change too. The process of transition is not something that happens suddenly, it's a gradual process this allows time for you and your family to get used to the idea and to plan ahead.

Transition is usually mentioned by the children's burn service when you are about 14 years old if your burns team think that you are likely to need ongoing burns care beyond the age of 16.

Most young people transitioning into adult burn care services will do so at some time between their 16th and 18th birthday. One of the main differences between the children's and adult services is the amount of independence you are given.

In adult services, the clinical team will normally spend more time talking to you during your appointments than your parents or carers. It's still okay to have your parents with you and to ask their opinion about your treatment if you want to. Over time the hope is that you will begin to feel more able to make your own decision about treatment or to speak up about any concerns you have. It can help to think about any concerns you have before your outpatient appointment, perhaps write these down and bring the list with you to your appointment. It is easy to forget what you want to ask when you're seeing a healthcare professional. Another difference is coming in for planned operations, if you were a child when you had your burn injury then you likely came to the children's burns ward for a dressing change clinic or in patients day you might have also visited the burns theatre, however once you are over the age of 16 and come in for a planned operation, then it's likely you will go to a different theatre and if you need to stay overnight then you will likely stay on a different ward too. This means that although your doctors might be the same you will likely meet some different people who will look after you during your operation and on the ward after your operation.

Also if you have an overnight stay as an adult your parents or carers will only be able to visit you during visiting hours rather than staying overnight in your room.

We understand that these may feel like quite big changes to adjust to that is why we think it's a good idea to think about these changes early. In addition to this, we want to make sure that you are aware that the psychological therapy service is available to support children and young people and adults of all ages who have received their medical treatment by the St Andrew’s Center for plastics and burns at Broomfield hospital.

If you are seen by a member of the child team for emotional support during the initial stages of your medical treatment and then later require further emotional support

as an adult, it is likely this support will be provided by a different therapist to whom you saw as a child. As a child you may have regularly seen a member of the child team at your outpatient clinic appointment this support can be made available when you start attending outpatient clinic appointments as an adult but you will need to ask a member of the medical team to request it for you. The team of psychological therapists includes counsellors, psychologists and psychotherapists with different members of the team working with either children or adults.

The child team will often provide support to parents and or siblings in addition to you the patient this support is available for both inpatients and outpatients even after medical treatment has completed.

In addition to this, the Children's Burns Club provides support and activities for children and young people up until the age of 25. This is anyone who has received treatment by a burns consultant which is likely to be ongoing the majority of our events do have a specified age range. Our annual camp for example is open to club members up to the date of their 18th birthday. There is a nationally run annual young adult weekend for members aged 18 to 25.

It’s likely as you get older, that there will be less events run by the children's burns club available to you as a participant, however, we encourage all our older members to join our volunteer training program from age 18. This is something that many of our members report they really enjoy being part of at any age you are more than welcome to get in touch with the club to ask for advice or support if it is felt that the club cannot provide this support. We will direct you to the most appropriate service this may be the psychological therapy service at the St Andrew’s Centre or charities like the Katy Piper Foundation, Dan's Fund for burns and the Children's Burns Trust. We understand that these may feel like quite big changes to adjust to that is why we think it's a good idea to think about these changes early.

If you have any questions about transitions, please speak to any member of your burns care team.