Changes to how Health Services are being delivered during the pandemic recovery phase – Aug 20

Children and Young Peoples’ Health Services in MK, including GPs, hospital services and Community Health services, have been working hard to plan and adapt how to safely continue to care for families during this “Covid-alertness” period. Hospital services and clinics have been carefully re-organised with Coronavirus safety measures put in place and outpatient community services are using  a combination of virtual consultations via phone or video-link with face to face appointments being offered for those Children and Young People with a high clinical need. 

We have up-dated our information on how Children’s health services in MK are supporting you and your child at this time. Please see the information below

0-19 service

0-19 Children’s Universal Health Services (Health Visitors and School Nurses)

We have a single point of access via our administrative team. You can call us on 01908 725100 Monday to Friday between 9.30am and 4.30pm where there is a duty Health Visitor/School Nurse available to speak to you and help and support you or email

 cnw-tr.019adminhub.mk@nhs.net                                                

Please see the link below to the 0-19 Children’s Universal Health Services (Health Visitors and School Nurses) fantastic new website.

Website Link: mkchildrenshealth.cnwl.nhs.uk

Audiology Services

We continue to provide a hearing aid repair service for adults and children together with support and advice via telephone consultations. We are now offering face to face appointments in the clinics. This will be slow at first as we have to ensure the clinics are Covid-safe by maintaining social distancing and thorough cleaning between patients.

Please call us on 01908 995199 / 995156 for advice if you need help or have concerns.

Chat Health has been launched

ChatHealth is an award-winning secure, anonymous and confidential text messaging service for young people aged 11-19 years. It will be available Monday to Friday from 9am to 4.30 pm (automatic bounce-backs respond to incoming messages out of hours). It allows young people to easily and anonymously get in touch with a healthcare professional for advice and support.

The text number for this service is 07480 635517.

Further information about Chat Health can be found via the following link: https://chathealth.nhs.uk/  

Children’s Physiotherapy Service

We continue to accept urgent referrals to physiotherapy and for those CYP who have deteriorating conditions.

Consultations will be done, wherever possible, over the telephone or via video calling and advice and exercises can be provided. If your child is due to receive a follow up appointment with physiotherapy in the near future, this is likely to be a telephone consultation.

If you feel that any physiotherapy equipment that has been provided needs altering or if you need to discuss anything with your physiotherapist then please contact physiotherapy reception on 01908 995432 (for under 4 years of age) or 01908 995450 (for over 4 years of age)

Community Paediatrics Service

We are continuing to offer telephone appointments in order that as many children as possible can have appointments without the need for them to come into a clinic. If you have been accepted into our service then as appointments become available, you will be contacted to arrange a suitable time.

You can contact us on 01908 724800 Or email us on: cnw-tr.community.paediatrics@nhs.net

Complex Needs Nursing team

The team are available to all children open to them who have complex medical needs and require nursing case management.

They are offering telephone advice and support with essential home visits will be provided.

The children with complex needs team can be contacted on 01908 724511 option two (Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm (excluding bank holidays)

The team can be contacted directly via email on the following address:  

cnw-tr.ComplexNeedsTeam@nhs.net

Occupational Therapy

The OT service is no longer able to provide the Thursday morning drop-in sessions for families. They now have an on-line referral form that parents or professionals can complete and this can be accessed from the link below:

https://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/services/community-services/milton-keynes-children-and-young-peoples-occupational-therapy-team/referral-form.

The referral forms are triaged and the family will be contacted to discuss the referral. The referrer needs to be aware that a telephone assessment will be done with the family in the first instance if the referral is accepted.

The service has a Facebook page and posts information and advice on a regular basis

You can contact us on 01908 724600

Or e-mail us on: mk.paed.ot@nhs.net

Paediatric Dietitians

We are continuing to offer telephone appointments and video consultations in order that as many children as possible can have appointments without the need for them to come into a clinic. Children and young people that require accurate weight and measurement are being offered clinic appointments.

You can contact us on 01908 996004 or e-mail us: paeds.dietetics@nhs.net

Specialised Dental Services

The Dental Service has been providing emergency care throughout lockdown and has been available for advice. Referrals to the service are through your child’s usual dentist or any health or social care professional.

The dental service is now starting to get some routine clinics up and running again and providing home visits where this is necessary (although treatment provided is very limited on a home visit).

However, the team is currently focusing on providing appointments for those who had emergency care during the pandemic and require some follow up and those who had their treatment cancelled at the beginning of the pandemic. They will then move on to those on the waiting list. The service is currently contacting patients to discuss the best course of action and safest treatment options for the long term and all patients will  have a telephone/video consultation prior to being offered an appointment in clinic. 

Please be aware that there is likely to be increased waits as there are a significantly reduced number of appointments available due to even stricter infection control measures and air decontamination time between patients.

If you are a patient and would like to discuss anything with us, you can telephone on 01908 724 677 or e-mail us on cnwl.hello.bpdsmk@nhs.net

Specialist CAMHS service

The majority of the service is now provided either over the phone or through video conferencing services such as Zoom.  There will be a small number of face-to-face appointments carried out but these will be based on the most urgent need.  Please contact your clinician as normal.

The team have strengthened the Duty worker process with senior staff being on call for any urgent issues and the Single Point of Access is operating as normal, with initial assessment taking place over the phone in most cases.

The Mental Health Schools Team have recently restarted seeing young people face to face within the school settings and will continue to do so over the school holidays.

You can contact us on 01908 724544 or e-mail our SPA:

Mkspcamhs.cnwl@nhs.net

Speech and Language Therapy Service

The SLT Team at the CDC:

For urgent new assessments and ongoing reviews for children with eating and drinking difficulties, we will be screening these referrals via telephone on a case by case basis, and we will offer face to face appointments where it is considered to be clinically essential.

If you are currently waiting for an assessment or a review of your child’s communication skills, we will be in touch with you in due course to arrange your appointment.  This appointment will take place via telephone or video call.  We will often ask you to provide us with a short video of your child and we will support you with providing us with this.

Strategies and advice packs will be provided to help you to support your child, and we will keep in regular contact with you to support you with using these.

We have extended our call-in telephone support clinic on Tuesdays  and it is now open from 8am to 4pm on 01908 725490.

Speech and Language Therapy Early Years Team

We are unable to offer the Drop-In service at the hospital or Wolverton Health Centre during this coronavirus- alert stage. Parents and professionals are currently able to call us up to request an assessment and from September, you will be able to refer directly to the service via a new online referral form. We are continuing to offer assessment and intervention support via telephone or video link and provide resource packs and useful resources on our website. We are offering Hanen parent training on-line and group sessions on-line to those families on our waiting list

We post on Facebook regularly to let you know about resources that might be of benefit to your child       Milton Keynes Speech and Language Therapy Service

Please call our admin team on 01908 725299 if you have any queries.

Speech and Language Therapy Team for School-aged Children

The SLT Service for Schools have been supporting schools and parents with advice, strategies and resources during the summer term with some school visits for EHC plan assessments and reviews.  We are planning to be back in schools shortly after they open up to all pupils with a blended approach to support (a mix of virtual appointments and face to face appointments, according to need)

If you have any concerns or questions about your school-aged child in relation to speech or language please do make contact to discuss via email to  chris.rutter1@nhs.net or Telephone 01908 725614 (this has an answering machine and we will get back to you. Please leave a slow and clear message with your child’s name and your contact number).