Hospital Passport
Welcome to UHBW's Children's Hospital Passport, a document to
help children with life-long disabilities when going to
hospital.
The aim of the Hospital Passport is to provide our staff with
information about your child during a hospital visit. This
information will help us work in partnership with you in meeting
your child's needs when using our hospital services.
What is a Hospital Passport?
A Hospital Passport is a document completed by parent/carers, or
the child themselves, that tells the hospital about their
healthcare and disability needs, including how they communicate.
This should make it easier for staff in the hospital to look after
them. It can also make it easier for parent/carers, who often find
themselves explaining the same thing over and over again.
Who can have a Hospital Passport?
Any child with life-long disability, including learning
disabilities and/or autistic spectrum disorder, can have a Hospital
Passport. In addition there are children with long-term illnesses
or who need to be in hospital for a long time who may benefit from
having a Hospital Passport.
How do I get a Hospital Passport?
Please return your Hospital Passports at least five
working days before your child's planned admission date to allow us
time to process and share it.
What information should I put on my child's Hospital
Passport?
The information you put on your child's Hospital Passport should
be what you feel staff in hospital need to know. It should be in
your words rather than being too medical. It's about your child
from your experience.
Do I need to keep the Hospital Passport with my child all of
the time, just in case?
No. When the Hospital Passport is received by the Paediatric
Disability Clinical Specialist an alert (a 'tag') is placed on your
child's Electronic Patient Record. Your child's Hospital Passport
will be stored on a secure internal website that authorised staff
can access. This means that when you come to Bristol Royal Hospital
for Children you will not need to carry the passport, hospital
staff should print it out to use when you come in.
The Hospital Passport is yours to use in other settings if that
would be useful. This means you can have a copy to carry with you
for use in other hospitals or the GP.
How do I update the Hospital Passport if my child's needs
change?
It is important that the information on your child's Hospital
Passport is kept up to date so that it is relevant as and when you
have to come to hospital. The recommendation is that passports
should be reviewed:
- Every six months for children under 5 years of age
- Every year for children over 5 years of age.
In practice most people don't update their child's passport when
they're not in hospital. If there are changes that need to be made
when you come in then you can make changes to the printed passport
and ask staff to send it to the Paediatric Disability Clinical
Specialist.
You will receive a text message from the Paediatric Disability
Clinical Specialist every year with a link to complete a new
passport and if you would like a copy of your child's existing
passport to help with this then you can request one by emailing ChildrensHospitalPassport@UHBW.nhs.uk.
My child will be transitioning to adult services soon; will the
Hospital Passport go with them?
If your child's care will be remaining under either University
Hospitals Bristol NHS FT (
Bristol Royal Infirmary, St
Michael's Hospital, Bristol
Haematology and Oncology Hospital,
Bristol Heart Institute, Bristol
Eye Hospital,
Bristol Dental Hospital and
South Bristol Community Hospital) or North Bristol NHS Trust (
Southmead Hospital) then your child's Hospital Passport will be
sent to the adult Learning Disability and Autism services in those
hospitalsif they have diagnosed learning disability or and/or
autistic spectrum. This can be used to support transition.
If they do not have diagnosed learning disability or and/or
autistic spectrum the Hospital Passport will be available to
clinical teams in adult services and can be sent by the Paediatric
Disability Clinical Specialist on request.
Children and young peoplenottransitioning to Bristol hospitals
can have their Hospital Passport sent to teams in their local
hospital on request.
My child has other care documents; can these be used in the
hospital?
Yes. If your child has care plans or documents from other
organisations or hospitals then these can be sent to the Paediatric
Disability Clinical Specialist and these can be saved with, or
instead of, the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children Hospital
Passport. These can be scanned or, if submitted electronically,
saved directly. These will then be used as needed as and when your
child comes in to the hospital.
