The RNSH Department of Anaesthesia, Pain, and Perioperative Medicine provides elective and emergency anaesthetic services for children from 6 months to 15 years old for a range of surgical and diagnostic procedures including:
- Paediatric general surgery
- ENT surgery
- Orthopaedic surgery
- Plastic surgery
- MRI
The department provides anaesthetic support to the RNSH Paediatric Emergency and Paediatric Medicine Departments for critically ill patients requiring resuscitation and stabilisation prior to transfer to either The Children’s Hospital at Westmead or Sydney Children’s Hospital. In addition, the department also provides support to the Neonatal Intensive Care and Birthing Units with neonatal resuscitations as required.
There are a group of anaesthetists within the department who have undertaken paediatric subspecialty training and can provide support for general consultant anaesthetists and anaesthetic trainees in the care of younger (< 2yo), medically complex, or critically ill neonatal and paediatric patients.
RNSH anaesthetic trainees undertake either 4-month or 6-month terms at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead for their paediatric anaesthesia specialised study unit. The department also conducts paediatric teaching including a neonatal resuscitation course for anaesthetists and paediatric subspecialty teaching for the part 1 and part 2 exams.