At the London Health Sciences Centre, the hospital within a hospital model is employed, with the Children's Hospital of Western Ontario embedded within the larger framework of Victoria Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre. Over 5,000 pediatric surgical cases pass through our operating rooms each year. Operations range from craniofacial reconstruction, scoliosis repair, general orthopedics and trauma, to ENT, urology and general surgery procedures. We are one of the few centers performing pediatric liver transplantation. Pediatric anesthesia support is provided by a subspecialty call group that is available for advice and assistance at all times.
Children are reviewed daily in the Pediatric Preadmission Clinic. At that time, suitability for our "NAP" Program (Parental Presence at Induction) is determined. A discussion regarding post-operative analgesia is carried out at that time as well. Post-operative PCA or epidural analgesia for children is supervised by our Acute Pain Service Team.
Our residency program includes a minimum three-month block of training in the art and science of pediatric anesthesia. We also provide training for residents in other specialties as well as for other health care professionals.
Outside of the operating room, our Department provides sedation services for hematology-oncology procedures, endoscopies, MRI and CT scans, as well as interventional radiology procedures and cardiac catheterizations.
Our subspecialty group is active in other areas of the Children's Hospital of Western Ontario with ongoing involvement in fundraising and education. We also provide servers and barbeque experts for the Annual Teddy Bear Picnic!
Our pediatric anesthesia program has maintained its momentum in 2012. We continued to consolidate complex pediatric anesthesia within the pediatric groups while keeping in mind that all anesthesiologists at Victoria Hospital are very much pediatrics-capable. We have also continued the improvements in our academic program with new initiatives such as teaching and resident evaluations. Our Program has received consistently positive feedback from our residents and those from other programs such as pediatrics.
Four of our residents have applied to and been accepted to pediatric anesthesia fellowship programs in Canada, the United States and Australia.
Those that have completed pediatric anesthesia electives at other institutions have returned to give us positive comparative feedback about our own program and teaching. Medical students have also commented that participating in pediatric anesthesia has been especially interesting and rewarding - largely because of the quality of the education provided.
Our visibility and profile has expanded. Various members of our department have presented on pediatric anesthesia locally and at regional conferences in 2012 such as Grand Rounds, the Annual Post Anesthesia Care Conference, and the OMA Annual meeting. In addition, we continue to be invited to sit on more pediatrics-related committees and task forces within London Health Sciences such as pediatric pharmacy and transitional care.
We interviewed a number of potential recruits in 2012/13 and I am pleased to announce that Dr. Raju Poolacherla from the United Kingdom and Dr. Enda Connolly from Ireland have accepted positions in our department.
Dr. Poolacherla completed a pediatric anesthesia fellowship at Great Ormond Street Hospital and has been in clinical practice since 2007. He has extensive experience in quality improvement and will assist us in our own such initiatives. Dr. Connolly is currently finishing pediatric anesthesia and intensive care fellowships at Boston Children’s Hospital. He has an interest in simulation and ethics.
