Children and young people's physiotherapy and dietetics service

The children’s therapy service at Barnet Hospital and Chase Farm Hospital is a small team of children and young people’s physiotherapists and dieticians who provide assessment and short-term intervention for a wide range of conditions.

Children and young people’s physiotherapy

• The inpatient physiotherapist team provides weekday ward cover at Barnet Hospital. They assess and treat children and young people on Galaxy children’s ward with orthopaedic, respiratory and neurological concerns, to support their admission and safe discharge.
• The team provide assessment and short-term intervention for babies and children under five who present with talipes, torticollis, Erb’s palsy and gait difficulties.
• Our musculoskeletal physiotherapists provide assessment and intervention for children and adolescents with acute orthopaedic injuries, adolescent conditions eg Osgood-Schlatters disease and Severs disease, post-surgery management and fractures.
• The physiotherapists also support the multidisciplinary team rheumatology clinic, which provides assessment and intervention for non-inflammatory conditions, including symptomatic hypermobility, and inflammatory conditions such as juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).

Children and young people’s dietetics

• The inpatient dietician assesses and provides intervention to babies on Starlight neonatal unit and children and young people on Galaxy ward, to support their nutritional intake and ensure safe discharge from Barnet Hospital.
• The team provide assessment and short-term intervention in their general paediatric dietetic clinic, and support children and their families with a range of conditions that cause impact on nutrition and growth.
• Dieticians provide support to the multidisciplinary team allergy clinic and provide follow-up advice, for example on milk ladder progression (reintroducing milk into the diet).
• The team have one full-time equivalent diabetes dietician who provides support to the multidisciplinary clinic, pump schools, carb counting and support at initial diagnosis.