The aim of this appeal is to provide an environment where the highest level of quality care can be provided for children requiring level 1 and 2 critical care in their local hospital. It is important for young children to be treated as close to home as possible to help reduce the additional stress put on a child and their family when they are seriously ill.  

Wexham Park’s paediatric High Dependency Unit (HDU) had capacity for two children in a very small cramped room which had room for a bed and a cot. The lack of space made it very difficult to treat children when there was an emergency and at times one child had to be moved to another part of the main ward to enable clinical staff to care for a seriously ill child and provide some privacy for a child and their family. There were other times when only one HDU bed could be used due to a child’s illness if they were infectious which again means that another child had to be cared for in the main ward not in HDU.   

Children awaiting retrieval to the nearest specialist unit in either Oxford or Southampton are stabilised and stay in the HDU until the teams arrive which can be a number of hours. The team will then stay with the child until they are satisfied the child is stable enough to transfer by ambulance to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit.  

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust has now completed the build of the new unit in 2016 at a cost of £1.25m and the appeal is now focussing on equipping this new facility with items above and beyond the NHS provision.  Our dream is to create a world class facility for children in the area.