Evaluation of temporary changes to paediatric services in North Central London

An evaluation of temporary changes to children and young people’s services in North Central London (NCL) in the autumn and winter of 2020/21 has been published.

The summary and full report are available online.

Temporary changes were made to children and young people’s services across North Central London during the autumn and winter of 2020/21 as part of the NHS’s response to the pandemic.

At UCLH this meant our children and young people’s emergency department and acute inpatient paediatric beds were temporarily closed and these services were provided at the Whittington Hospital instead.

When implementing the changes, healthcare leaders across NCL committed to carrying out an evaluation to ensure any learning could be taken into the future.

Staff, patients and local stakeholders were invited to take part. There were 39 discussion groups involving more than 200 people, and 361 people completed surveys and patient experience feedback forms. This feedback was combined with financial information and nationally agreed performance benchmarks.

UCL Partners analysed the data and drafted the evaluation report.