A Whole New Way

Rethinking the transition from paediatric to adult services

Members of our Youth Forum and our Young Adult Forum are making a difference to current services, whilst shaping how the future children's hospital will look and feel. They have been sharing their thoughts on how to improve the transition from children's to adult services at Addenbrooke's Hospital.

ITV Anglia report on our children and young people's engagement

A reporter from ITV Anglia went behind the scenes to look at how we are involving children and young people in the new hospital's design and development. Members of Cambridge Children's Network were interviewed about what the project means to them. We were delighted to headline the bulletin!

Share your insights as part of our Parent Carer Voice

With our Outline Business Case approved, in principle, the Cambridge Children's Hospital project is now planning detailed work on care pathways and operating models. With this in mind, we are inviting parents and carers with lived experience of caring for a child in hospital and/or mental health services to sign up to our Parent Carer Voice. This will allow us to reach out to the people with relevant experience when specific pieces of work arise.

Events around the region

It's been a busy Autumn spreading the word about the project and gathering feedback. We met young people at Cambridge Regional College's Freshers Fairs and at Young Healthwatch Central Bedfordshire's Health and Wellbeing Conference, where we ran a series of creative workshops.

We were pleased to meet parents and carers whose children have SEND at the Pinpoint Conference in October. It was a great opportunity to share how we are working to ensure Cambridge Children's Hospital is inclusive and accessible for all.

Finally, we talked to members of the public and NHS staff at the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre open evening, sharing how our future hospital will shift away from reactive approaches to a focus on prevention, early detection and precision treatments.

The 'gift' of diagnosis through genetic research

As a toddler, Owen Everitt had many invasive medical procedures to try to find out why he wasn't meeting his developmental milestones. He could not sit up, walk or talk.

Through Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS), it was discovered that Owen had an incredibly rare mutation. This was stopping his body from responding properly to thyroid hormone, which is essential for growth, brain development, cardiac and gastrointestinal function and normal metabolism.

Owen, now nine, is on treatment - a simple tablet, every day. His parents say he is making brilliant progress.

Cambridge Children's Hospital will have its own research institute, with six centres including a Centre for Genomic Medicine. This will deploy cutting-edge advances in genomic science – particularly whole genome sequencing and gene and cell therapies – to find new treatments and support children and young people across the region and UK.

Earlier diagnosis helps families avoid years of uncertainty, clinic appointments, invasive investigations and trials.

Celebration for cancer doctor

Children's cancer doctor, Professor Sam Behjati, has won a prestigious award for his pioneering work in understanding how childhood cancers develop and delivering state-of-the-art diagnostics.

Sam, who is a practising consultant at Addenbrooke's Hospital, was awarded the 2023 Foulkes Foundation Academy of Medical Sciences Medal. He leads a research group at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and is a Clinical Professor of Paediatric Oncology at the University of Cambridge. Read more here.

£10 million donation from Julius Jones Trust

The Julius Jones Trust – a UK charity dedicated to raising vital funds to support NHS services – have donated £10million to the Cambridge Children's fundraising campaign. The money will support spaces in the hospital, including family wellbeing rooms -multipurpose spaces away from clinical areas where families can spend quality time together during long hospital stays - and a central information hub that will provide vital support information for patients and their families. You can read more here.

Young people join fundraising event in London

Fintan and Macie, both 15, gave excellent speeches at a fundraising campaign event at the Middle Eight Hotel in London. They shared their healthcare journeys - Fintan, as a patient, and Macie, as the sibling of a patient - and talked to guests afterwards.

Grant for specialist mental health research to speed up diagnosis and treatment

Dr Anna Moore and her team has secured £2.5 million to carry out research into how AI can improve early intervention for children and young people with mental health challenges. Anna is Assistant Professor in Child Psychiatry and Medical Informatics at the University of Cambridge and a child psychiatrist for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust. Read the BBC story here

Shared learning with other hospitals

The Cambridge Children's Hospital project team recently visited Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where work is underway to develop a new children's cancer centre. Gaining inspiration and learning from other organisations is a key part of our work to develop the East of England's first specialist children's hospital.

We also enjoyed a visit from clinicians at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark. They were interested to find out more about our vision for integrated mental and physical healthcare, which is something they are looking to develop for their own patients.