Healthcare services
Health visiting and school nursing
The Derbyshire Family Health Service is a team of healthcare professionals, that include health visitors and school nurses who will support you and your family as part of the 0-19 year olds free public health and wellbeing services. From birth to early adulthood, the team provide the support and information you need to keep your family healthy. This includes:
Child health clinics
Information about child health clinics in Derby is available on the NHS Derbyshire Healthcare website. Please bring your child's red book with you when you attend.
GPs, urgent treatment centres and NHS 111
Your General Practitioners (GPs) surgery or health centre is the first place to visit if you have a health concern. They provide a wide range of family health services including advice on health problems, examinations and treatment, vaccinations, prescriptions for medicines and referrals to other health services and social services.
Use the NHS childhood vaccines timeline to ensure your child is safe.
Urgent treatment centres are a support service for GPs. They can provide a valuable service for unregistered patients or others who have difficulty accessing their own GP services. You do not need an appointment; you can just walk in.
NHS 111 can help you if you have an urgent medical problem and you are not sure what to do.
Get help online or by telephone:
- go to 111.nhs.uk
- call 111
The service is also available by textphone and BSL interpreter relay service. Information about alternative formats can be found on their website.
Community Dental Services
Community Dental Services provide a full range of NHS dental care for adults and children with additional needs and those from vulnerable groups. This service is led by a specialist dentist, and all staff are experienced in working with those who are anxious or require additional support for their dental care.
For more information, visit the Community Dental Services website.
Learning disability health check
Anyone aged 14 or over who's on their GPs learning disability register can have a free learning disability health check once a year.
You can ask to go on this register if you think you have a learning disability. You do not need to be diagnosed with a learning disability to be on the register. The learning disability register is different from the register of social care needs managed by local councils.
Mencap has some useful Easy Read guides and a video to share on what happens at an annual review. More information is also available on the NHS website.
Medical needs in schools
Some children and young people attending early years settings and schools will have long-term health conditions for example, asthma, epilepsy and diabetes.
- All schools are required to have their own policy on supporting pupils with medical conditions. This will be based on national guidance for schools, together with some suggested templates for writing individual healthcare plans.
- Some long-term conditions can easily be managed without the need for an individual healthcare plan, but for some children and young people and individual healthcare plan is required to make sure that their medical needs are met during their time at nursery or school.
- A decision on whether a plan is needed in school would normally be based on advice from health practitioners and be made in consultation with parents and carers and, where possible, the child or young person themselves.
Individual Health Care Plans (IHCP)
Ensuring that there is an individual healthcare plan when a child or young person needs one is the responsibility of the school or setting, but it is normally written in partnership with parents and carers, and ideally the child or young person. It is based on the advice given by health practitioners, likely to be a doctor or nurse and should be updated at least annually.
Children's specialist nursing services
Specialist children's community nurses provide care and support for children and their families who have long term complex health needs, often palliative, within their home and community. The nursing teams provide clinical assessments, treatments and support. They also educate and train families and carers on specific subjects including diagnosis and clinical procedures. Derby’s Children's Community Nursing Service is also known as Kids In Their Environment (KITE) team.
Continence Service
The children's Continence Service is a small nurse-led community level 2 service supporting children and young people aged 4 to 18 years old (19 if your child attends a special school) with continence needs, following receiving level 1 support from services such as health visiting, school nursing and GP. The service sees children who are experiencing problems with their bowels and bladder, to assess their problems, give preliminary diagnosis, support, management and treatment plans. They see a range of children and young people, who for some, this is their only healthcare need and others who have a range of complex needs.
Children in Care and adoption nurses and doctor service
Children in Care is a team of specialist nurses who support the health needs of looked after children, their carers and those leaving care up to the age of 18. They make sure the health needs of looked after children are met by undertaking review health assessments and delivering packages of care. They also work closely with the other professionals surrounding looked after children and can support referrals to other services as needed.
Community paediatrics
In community paediatrics, paediatricians are doctors experienced with children and young people for an identified or complex health need. They are specially trained in child health and development and see children for a wide variety of reasons.
Hospitals
The Royal Derby Hopsital covers Derby city. The NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) and NHS Trusts cover multiple hospitals in the region.
There are two SEND children’s services at the Royal Derby Hospital:
Derby’s NHS Children’s Services offer a full range of services in dedicated child and family friendly environments, including a separate emergency department, family accommodation and the Ronnie MacKeith Centre for children with special and education needs. Their staff are fully trained in paediatrics and work closely with regional expert teams in Nottingham, Birmingham and Leicester.
Children's Community Nursing also known as the Kids In Their Environment (KITE) team, is a team of experienced children’s nurses who provide specialist nursing care and support in the hospital, home and the community. They facilitate the wishes of children with complex care needs to live at home, go to school, spend time with friends and participate in community activities.
Always call 999 if someone is seriously ill or injured and their life is at risk.
Palliative care (end of life care)
Palliative care is the care of patients with advanced, progressive and life-limiting illnesses, both cancer and non-cancer, their carers and families. It includes:
- the management of pain and other symptoms such as psychological, social and spiritual support
- quality of life and living as actively as possible until death
- all health professionals providing care and is available in all clinical settings
- end of life and bereavement care.
Referrals come from the primary care team or GP and are made to the team secretary by telephone.
The Community Palliative Care team is based at the Royal Derby Hospital.
Contact details
Telephone: 01332 786008
Minicom: 01332 254944
Email: dhft.cancerinformation@nhs.net
Out of hours support
Macmillan Cancer Support: 0808 808 0000
More information about palliative care in Derby is available on the NHS University Hospitals of Burton and Derby website.