title: Safe transport from a specialist paediatric intensive care unit to a referral hospital.
abstract: There are 23 paediatric intensive care units (PICU) in the UK and 19 of these have a retrieval team responsible for the safe and uneventful transfer of critically ill children from referring hospitals. There are two established PICUs in University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) NHS Trust that work as a team. In 2001, a transfer service was introduced to support the UHL PICU retrieval service and the referring district general hospitals. At the time of writing this article there was no other PICU in the UK providing a dedicated paediatric clinical transport nurse service, whose main responsibility is the safe transfer of infants and children back to their local hospitals. This article will discuss the development of this service and the benefits to PICU and referral hospitals.
authors.affiliation: Children's Hospital, University Hospitals of Leicester.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Solomon
authors.forename: Dave
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Clarke
mesh_terms: D000552:Ambulances / Q000458:organization & administration; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003422:Critical Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004739:England; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D015278:Intensive Care Units, Pediatric / Q000458:organization & administration; D009720:Nurse Clinicians / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000523:psychology; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009731:Nursing Audit; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D010371:Pediatric Nursing / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000458:organization & administration; D017751:Safety Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012621:Seasons; D014187:Transportation of Patients / Q000458:organization & administration*