As part of our new programme Prioritising Paediatric Health, ITN Business sat down with Sara Hanna, Medical Director at Evelina London Children’s Hospital, one of only two specialist children’s hospitals within the English capital.

Watch our short interview as Sara discusses the big challenges, exciting innovations, developments in home treatment, and crucial role of psychological support for the professionals working in children’s healthcare.

Sara’s thoughts on…

The biggest challenges facing child healthcare

“The biggest challenge that’s facing child healthcare is the gap in outcomes between the babies and children that come from the most well-off families and those that are from the most deprived — particularly from certain ethnic groups; that’s definitely got worse over the last few years.

“I think what’s going to be the real challenge is, in the face of incredible advancements in technology, in developing therapies and diagnostic means — balancing that with making sure that we’re providing equitable care to all of our population.”

Advancements in gene therapy

“We have a small number of children that have had injections of gene therapy into their eyes and it has restored their sight… we have other children that are receiving gene therapy for muscular conditions. These advancements are quite incredible. And I think we will see more and more around some of the blood disorders, which may well be curable in the future, so it’s very exciting.”

Collaboration in healthcare

“I think the key to good outcomes for patients is close collaboration… Between academic research, education and training, and clinical care, there’s loads of mutual benefits. The academics are more likely to know the questions that are really relevant and prioritised by our patients and clinicians if they’re working closely with us. Similarly, we know in hospital that if we have academic research happening, we’re more likely to retain staff and attract staff. We’re more likely to have good outcomes.”

“It’s a fact that hospitals that have clinical research as a high priority have lower mortality rates.”

On supporting the wellbeing of caring professionals

“I think healthcare attracts people that are naturally empathetic. In child health, women’s health, and maternity, that’s probably even more so. So, on the spectrum of caring professionals, neonatal paediatric nurses are very far out there. They are incredibly well-placed to work with families and children and young people, but at the same time they are people that are going to be emotionally affected by the things they see…

“One of the things that has advanced in the last few years is the idea of supporting our staff. Not just in terms of occupational health, but in terms of psychological support. Evelina London is probably one of the first places to have staff psychology embedded across our whole provisions…

“Very distressing things happen and the ability to be able to say to staff, ‘we have people that can help you’ is really important. It keeps people in work; otherwise they’d end up being off sick with stress for long periods of time.”

EXPLORE OUR PROGRAMME

Our new Prioritising Paediatric Health programme is now live — head here to watch more.