Clinical Services

Paediatrics

Introduction

The Department of Paediatrics of Queen Elizabeth Hospital is a major paediatric department in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. We provide quality patient care to the population of central Kowloon region. The department has 197 beds for acute care and 10 convalescent beds in Kowloon Hospital. We also render service in a wide range of general and subspecialty paediatrics clinics at the Ambulatory Care Centre and the multi-disciplinary Adolescent Medical Centre in T Block.

We aspire to deliver a comprehensive and high quality specialist-led paediatric service in a child-friendly environment by skilled and devoted staff, with commitment to the physical and emotional needs of children and their parents in our community.

Scope of Services

We provide a number of specialist-led services in the fields of general paediatrics, adolescent medicine, community paediatrics, cardiology, endocrinology and metabolic diseases, gastroenterology and nutrition, haematology and oncology, immunology and infectious diseases, intensive care, neonatology, nephrology and rheumatology, neurology, respirology and sleep medicine.

We take care of children who are admitted as paediatric in-patients in our hospital. Out-patient referrals can be made by all registered medical practitioners in Hong Kong. New patients will generally be seen at the General Paediatric Clinics every Monday and Thursday afternoon and Friday morning before they are triaged to the appropriate subspecialty clinics if needed. Our Adolescent Medical Centre also receives referrals from related professionals in the whole territory.

Adolescent Medical Centre
With the goal of providing developmentally-appropriate holistic healthcare to adolescent population in Hong Kong, we adopt the multidisciplinary approach in our centre and provide comprehensive clinical healthcare with the support from Adolescent Physicians (Specialist in Paediatrics), Child Psychiatrists, Clinical Psychologists, Advanced Practice Nurse, Occupational Therapists, Dietitians and Medical Social Worker. We take care of young persons with eating disorders in our inpatient and outpatient programs; adolescents with chronic illnesses who require healthcare transition program to adult healthcare system. We also provide healthcare and psychosocial support to adolescents with psychosomatic symptoms, mood, anxiety and other mental health disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, gender identity disorder, sexuality and reproductive health issues, and adolescent health concerns on puberty, body stature and weight problems. Apart from that we are available for consultation to inpatient units and outpatient clinics throughout the hospital. We also provide regular training and education on adolescent medicine for doctors, medical students, nurses, clinical psychologists, dietitians and social workers in different seminars in Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Hospital Authority commission training programs. We also take part in research projects on eating disorder and obesity in adolescence.

Cardiology
Our Department is one of the three designated Paediatric Cardiology Centres under Hospital Authority in Hong Kong. We are equipped with world-class high-tech facilities. We provide a comprehensive paediatric cardiology service for patients including 3D echocardiography, foetal echocardiography, antenatal counselling as well as diagnostic and interventional cardiac catheterization. We also take care of grown-up patients with congenital heart disease in partnership with our surgical & medical colleagues to suit patients’ changing needs. Our service is provided by experienced paediatric cardiology experts. In collaboration with prestigious medical colleges or societies, we frequently organized cardiology training and continuous professional education for healthcare professionals with a view to improve our service as well as the cardiology service of Hong Kong.

Comprehensive Child Development Service (CCDS)
CCDS is a child-centered and family-oriented service model aiming to address the developmental needs of socially disadvantaged and at risk young children through early identification and timely preventive intervention. Support to the families starts before birth. Through multi-disciplinary team approach, at risk women are monitored throughout their pregnancies. After birth till 5 years old, service provision of the children is continued by the community Paediatrician, which includes monitoring of physical condition, growth and development. We also monitor for possible child protection issues through risk assessment. The community-based program involves inter-sectoral collaboration which allows the alignment and integration of different services including medical care, education and social services to be provided in a timely manner.

Endocrinology
Our Endocrine team provides comprehensive service to patients with various endocrine disorders including diabetes mellitus, growth, puberty, thyroid, adrenal, pituitary, disorders in sex development and obesity. We have various facilities relevant to the endocrine subspecialty including blood and urine hormonal assay, endocrine test procedures and imaging facilities. Interpretation of complicated laboratory and imaging results and consultation service are provided by in-house chemical pathologist and radiologists. Our out-patient diabetic clinic is run by experienced paediatric endocrinologists, diabetic educators and dietitian. Annual diabetic complication assessment is provided every summer. Special services including insulin pump therapy, continuous glucose monitoring system, outreach diabetic education and 24-hour diabetic helpline are also available. Multi-disciplinary service is provided to adolescent endocrine patients by the coordinated effort among paediatric endocrinologists, clinical psychologist and social worker in the adolescent endocrine clinic.

Gastroenterology and Nutrition
Our team provides professional assessment and treatment for paediatric patients with digestive system diseases and nutritional problems including severe constipation, gastroesophageal reflux disease, irritable bowel syndrome, cyclical vomiting, gut dysmotility disorders, short gut syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis), celiac disease, fatty liver, cholestatic jaundice and biliary atresia. We provide oesophagogastroduodenoscopy (OGD) & colonoscopy services, urea breath test and tests for gastroesophageal reflux. We serve gastrostomy tube and nasogastric feeding tube care. Our team also provides home parenteral nutrition service.

Haematology and Oncology
Queen Elizabeth Hospital is one of the five paediatric haematology and oncology centres in the Hospital Authority. We have the facilities and expertise to manage children with general as well as complicated haematology problems. We have the transfusion programme for thalassaemia patients and the haemophilia management programme. We provide comprehensive care for children with childhood cancers. We have support from the laboratories and pathologists, imaging facilities and diagnostic radiologists, surgeons from various surgical specialties, radiation oncologists and allied health professions to form the multi-disciplinary team for our paediatric oncology patients. Our unit also has the designated ward facilities for our paediatric haematology and oncology patients.

Immunology and Infectious Diseases
Our Department is one of the four accredited training centres for the subspecialty of Paediatric Immunology and Infectious Diseases in Hong Kong. We have a designated isolation ward with airborne isolation facilities to manage children with a wide range of infectious diseases like tuberculosis, chickenpox, and novel influenza infection. We also provide consultation service relevant to the subspecialty and specialist care for children with various infectious diseases like viral hepatitis, congenital infections, bone and joint infections, vaccination issues. We also provide family-oriented comprehensive care for children with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection by multi-disciplinary team. We offered evaluation and medical care for children with recurrent infections and immunodeficiency. Our team also provides specialist service for children with various allergic diseases including food allergy, drug allergy, anaphylaxis, angioedema, moderate-severe eczema and chronic urticaria. We provide various allergy diagnostic tests including skin prick test, blood tests, intradermal test, food and drug challenge tests.

Paediatric Intensive Care
The Paediatric Intensive Care Unit is composed of six multidisciplinary critical care beds, two negative pressure isolation rooms and three high dependency beds and provides intensive care services for all paediatric patients in our hospital. We also provide on-site paediatric resuscitation support within the hospital complex. Our PICU using advanced technology and equipment, provides sophisticated care for medical and surgical patients including major neurosurgery, thoracic surgery and multiple injuries for trauma accidents.

Metabolic medicine
Our Metabolic team comprising of experienced metabolic paediatricians, dietitians, chemical pathologists and metabolic nurses provides comprehensive and high-quality metabolic services to patients with inborn errors of metabolism. Our department is one of the 4 designated centres for Paediatric Enzyme Replacement Therapy in Hong Kong. In collaboration with the Department of Health, the government-initiated pilot study of newborn screening for inborn errors of metabolism was launched in our hospital on 1 Oct 2015. Babies with screened positive results were evaluated in our newborn screening clinic. The success of the pilot study resulted in extending the screening service to all public hospitals with maternity wards in phases.

Neonatology
The Neonatal team provides care for both inborn and outborn babies who need special attention after birth. They are cared either in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit or Special Care Baby Unit. Some of the reasons include preterm birth, low birth weight, breathing difficulty, infection and surgical problems. We collaborate with colleagues from other paediatric sub-specialties and surgical units. As this hospital is a Baby Friendly Hospital, mothers are encouraged and supported to breastfeed their babies. Some of the babies are followed up in the outpatient clinic after discharge.

Nephrology
Our Nephrology team provides specialist service in evaluation and management of patients with various kidney diseases including acute and chronic glomerulonephritis, lupus-related kidney disease, nephrotic syndrome, kidney failure, renal tubular disorders, hypertension, renal stones, recurrent urinary tract infection, vesicoureteric reflux and various congenital kidney abnormalities. Our hospital is equipped with various laboratory and imaging facilities for investigations of a wide range of kidney diseases. We also provide paediatric 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and ultrasound-guided renal biopsy services. Our team also provides acute and chronic renal replacement support as well as plasmapheresis to both paediatric and neonatal intensive care units. Both our medical and nursing staff are fully trained and are capable of caring children requiring acute dialysis. We work with the surgery, urology, neurosurgery and orthopaedics colleagues to provide multi-disciplinary clinics for children with congenital nephro-urological and spine abnormalities. We also collaborate with adult nephrology physicians for transition care of adolescents with renal diseases.

Neurology
Our Neurology team is one of the accredited training centres for the subspecialty of Paediatric Neurology by the Hong Kong College of Paediatricians. We provide comprehensive clinical service for children with neurological disorders. Apart from regular out-patient clinics and in-patient consultation service, we also work closely with the various allied health departments in the Hospital Authority to provide rehabilitation service. In particular, we operate a seating service consultation at Kowloon Hospital. We also have a wide range of electrophysiologic studies (evoked potentials, electroencephalography, nerve conduction studies and electromyography), video fluoroscopic swallow study and botulinum toxin injection for spasticity.

Respiratory and sleep medicine
The paediatric respiratory team provides a broad range of clinical services to infants, children and adolescents with respiratory and sleep disorders. Facilities including pulmonary function test, exercise test, bronchoscopy services and polysomnography are available. We also provide other specialized services including home oxygen therapy and home ventilator care to patients in need. A sleep laboratory has been established to investigate sleep-disordered breathing and other sleep-related disorders like restless leg syndrome, parasomnias and narcolepsy.

Rheumatology
We provide a multidisciplinary service to children with various rheumatology problems like systemic lupus erythematosus, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, spondyloarthropathies, juvenile dermatomyositis, scleroderma, vasculitis and various musculoskeletal problems. We offer various modalities of therapy including biologics therapy for selected patients. The service is provided by a team of specialists including paediatricians, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, orthopedic Surgeons and dietitian. There is also an adolescent transitional clinic to target at special needs of adolescents with these chronic illnesses. A patient support group 友情天地has also been established since 1996 for patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Services Hours

• Our in-patient services operate 24 hours daily.
• Out-patient clinics
  • Monday to Friday: 0900 – 1700
• Adolescent Medical Centre
  • Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday: 0900 – 1800 (Lunch hour: 1300 – 1400)
  • Thursday: 1300 – 2100 (Dinner hour: 1700 – 1800)

Contact Us

Address:	Department of Paediatrics, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, 30 Gascoigne Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Out-patient clinic:	Tel 35066226 / Fax 35066140
Adolescent Medical Centre:	Tel 35066443 / Fax: 35066625