Dr Isobel Heyman champions integrated care at Children’s Hospital Conference

The Children’s Hospital Conference, hosted at Murray Edwards College, welcomed stakeholders of the new Cambridge Children's Hospital, including the Children's Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza and Co-Chair of Cambridge Children’s Hospital Campaign Board, Dame Mary Archer. Murray Edwards’ Professorial Fellow, Dr Isobel Heyman, is a consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and clinical co-lead for Cambridge Children’s Hospital development project. Isobel helped facilitate the event at Murray Edwards as well as being a key speaker.  

Isobel said:

"As a clinical academic child psychiatrist, I have always worked at the interface of physical and mental health – although these two aspects of health are traditionally unfortunately separated. To be involved in the planning and development of a unique new Children's Hospital which will fully integrate mind and body alongside cutting-edge research fulfils a long-held aspiration. Partnership with the world-leading biomedical environment of Cambridge University will contribute to medical excellence.  Not only will Cambridge Children's Hospital offer the best holistic care for children and families, and have an embedded research centre, it will also offer an exceptional environment for teaching and training medical students, doctors and other clinical staff in many professions."    

She and her teams see some of the most unwell children each week, in her clinics in Cambridge and London. Dr Heyman founded the UK’s first specialist clinic for young people with obsessive-compulsive disorder and also has extensive expertise in developmental neuropsychiatry, Tourette syndrome, epilepsy and persistent physical symptoms.  

Over a hundred delegates joined the event in Cambridge to learn more about the new hospital’s visionary approach for holistic care, with high profile guests including the Children’s Commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza and Broadcaster Dr Xand van Tulleken.

Cambridge Children’s Hospital will be the first specialist children’s hospital for the East of England. It will redefine care for children and young people, uniting mental and physical healthcare with world-leading life sciences research in a whole new way, treating mind and body as one.

The Children's Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza gave the keynote speech, following the launch of her recent report 'Children waiting in hospital'. She used the conference platform to draw attention to the gaps in children's health data and the delays and challenges medically fit children face in being discharged because services are not ready to support them at home or in the community. She said:

“Dedicated children's hospitals like this one are crucial. I am thrilled to see and hear about the work being undertaken here in Cambridge, such as the end to-end pathway for children with acquired brain injuries. In my work, I hear about how children’s hospitals - and their staff - are utterly transforming lives outside of clinical practice and operating theatres. Proper planning of support for these children, and joint working, ensures some of the most vulnerable children are smoothly discharged from hospital into the community and well supported no matter where they live.” 

Following the conference, Dame Rachel said: 
“I’m very pleased to hear that Cambridge Children’s hospital is already addressing the need for embedded links with social care, as well as exploring how to keep children in their communities and tackle unequal access to services.”

Dame Mary Archer, Co-chair of Cambridge Children’s Hospital Campaign Board, compered the conference and gave the welcome address, describing the project as “close to my heart.” She said she had championed the need for a children’s hospital on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus since the late 1990s, but it now has a clear timetable and real momentum behind it.

Other speakers included:

• Professor Sam Behjati, Director of Cambridge Children’s Research Institute, on how child health research must integrate services that wrap around the child.
• Cambridge Children’s Hospital Clinical Leads Dr Rob Heuschkel and Professor Isobel Heymen focused on the urgent need for the East of England’s first specialist children’s hospital, while Dr Suzanna Watson, who leads Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust’s Psychological Medicine Team at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, talked about how integrated care works in practice.
• Dr Anna Moore from the University of Cambridge presented her work on CADRE, the Child and Adolescent Data Resource, a groundbreaking initiative designed to close the evidence and infrastructure gap in children’s health. 
• Dr Aditi Vedi, Consultant Academic Paediatric Oncologist at Cambridge University Hospitals, shared the advances in rapid whole genome sequencing for childhood cancer, bringing hope to families and avoiding lengthy and invasive treatment. Dr Vedi is part of the team at Cambridge Children’s award-winning Innovation Hub, 

Members of Cambridge Children’s Young Adult Forum – Yasmin and James – and two Parent Advocates – Kate and Sarah – joined Dr Xand for a panel discussion about how their voices are shaping the new hospital, how it looks, feels and cares.

Dr Xand said:
“I think Cambridge Children’s Hospital is the most innovative children’s health project in the world. Bringing physical health, mental health and research together is colossally important but at the heart of it, the patients lived experience is genuinely shaping everything from the physical structures to the design of the care pathway. It is going to be revolutionary.” 
 

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