The paediatric surgery service at RHCYP provides emergency and elective General Surgery of childhood for Lothian for children and young people up to the age of 16 years, and specialist paediatric surgical services for The South East of Scotland.
There are nine consultant paediatric surgeons, two of whom work between Tayside and Lothian, two who provide outreach to Fife and one who provides outreach to West Lothian and Borders.
- Mr Munro
- Mr Lam (Specialist Urology)
- Miss McCabe (Tayside and Lothian)
- Mrs Clark (Specialist Urology)
- Miss Steven (Specialist Urology, Tayside and Lothian)
- Mr Hammond (West Lothian and Borders outreach)
- Miss Papageorgiou (Specialist Urology, Fife outreach)
- Mr Cullis (Fife outreach)
- Mr Dass (West Lothian outreach)
Outpatient clinics are run at RHCYP, Western General, Musselburgh and East Lothian Community Hospital. These are all administered from RHCYP. Outreach clinics are run at St John’s, Borders General Hospital, Victoria Hospital Kirkcaldy and Queen Margaret Dunfermline.
In patient surgery is at RHCYP and day case surgery at RHCYP, BGH and VHK. Clinics, in patient and day case surgery are also provided in Tayside.
A rapid access tongue tie clinic is provided at RHCYP alternate weeks. This is only for babies, under 3 months of age, with tongue tie and breast feeding difficulties. Referral can be made directly by midwives, health visitors, breast feeding advisors and GPs. Please see link above for full details.
FM, LS, JB Sept 22
Who to refer:
Further information on specific conditions is available above but please also note:
- Inguinal hernia below 3 months of age please refer urgently
- Scrotal hydrocele do not refer unless persisting after 3 years of age
- Umbilical hernia do not refer unless persisting after 4 years of age
- Rapid Access Tongue Tie should be referred in by email using the specific form
- Constipation within the neonatal period should be referred to Paediatric General Surgery – if there is any uncertainty about this then please contact to discuss
- For Recurrent Abdominal Pain please see Paediatric GI Pages
Who not to refer:
- Chest wall deformity (Pectus Excavatum and Pectus Carinatum) is dealt with by a national service based at RHC Glasgow. They are happy to take referrals directly from General Practice. Referrals should be sent to: Mr James Andrews, Consultant paediatric surgeon, Chest Wall Service, Royal Hospital for Children, 1345 Govan Road, Glasgow G514TF. For further information Welcome to the Scottish National Chest Wall Service – The Scottish National Chest Wall Service.
How to refer:
Emergencies
There is a 24 hour emergency service at RHCYP. For requests for advice, review or admission contact the on call paediatric surgical team via the RHCYP switchboard (0131 536 1000). Children with acute abdominal pain (suspected appendicitis), acute scrotal pain or early post-operative complications (< 7days) may be sent directly to the emergency department at RHCYP, with a referral letter to paediatric surgery, for a surgical opinion.
Urgent Advice
For urgent advice please contact the on call surgical registrar or consultant via the RHCYP switchboard (0131 536 1000).
Out patient referrals (Urgent or Routine)
Out patient referrals are via SCI gateway (RHCYP for Edinburgh and East Lothian clinics and ST John’s for West Lothian), except for the rapid access tongue tie clinic (please see link above). All referrals are triaged by a consultant. Information on waiting times for routine out patient appointments is available on RefHelp.
Non-urgent Advice (No service after 16:00 or on weekends)
- If you are not sure whether a paediatric surgical review is necessary and/or wish to obtain some non-urgent advice, please refer via Sci Gateway indicating that you are seeking advice and not necessarily expecting an appointment.
- It would be helpful to include the practice clinical e-mail address on such referrals. This would allow a more rapid reply.
- We are happy to offer advice by telephone or e-mail as this may well expedite management.
- If a particular child is already under the care of a paediatric surgeon at RHCYP please consider contacting that surgeon via their secretary:
- Lisa Thomson (Mr Lam, Mr Munro, Mrs Clark and Miss Steven) 0131 312 0638
- Cheryl Goodlet (Mr Hammond and Miss McCabe) 0131 312 0636
- Gaynor Crilly (Mr Dass, Miss Papageorgiou and Mr Cullis) 0131 312 0639
