• Reference Number: HEY1091/2025
• Departments: Day Surgery (DSU), Paediatrics
• Last Updated: 28 February 2025

Before your child’s day of surgery 

• You will receive an appointment for a telephone pre-assessment for your child. You must be available without distraction for this appointment. You will be given more information about your child’s admission and any questions you have can be discussed.
• Please ensure you read and understand your child’s fasting (not eating and drinking before surgery) instructions. You will receive these instructions with your appointment letter. If these instructions are not followed, there is a risk that your child’s surgery will be cancelled for safety reasons. If you are unsure about these fasting instructions, please contact us before your child’s surgery.
• You must inform us if your child begins a course of antibiotics or develops any infections in the six weeks before the operation day. Infections include a chest infection (chesty cough), diarrhoea and vomiting, conjunctivitis (contagious eye infection), impetigo (contagious skin infection). Other illnesses you will need to inform us of are any of the childhood infections or illnesses such as chickenpox, measles, mumps etc. You will also need to inform us if your child has an asthma attack which required hospital treatment or if your child has any changes to their medication or starts any new medication
• Please give your child a bath or shower and hair wash the day before the operation (hair washing is especially important for operations involving the face, ears or scalp).
• Please be honest with your child about their day in hospital. We want this to be a positive and comfortable experience for them.

What to bring with you

• Please bring with you a change of clean clothes for your child to wear during their operation, for example pyjamas, nightie, shorts and tee-shirt (nothing too close fitting around the neck and must not contain any metal). Children having orthopaedic surgery will be required to wear a gown for their operation, but please still bring in a change of clean clothes.
• Some loose warm clothes to travel home in. Please remember that these will need to be loose around your child’s operation site.
• Any comforters your child normally has, for example dummies, blankets, teddy bears, dolls, rags or pillows.
• Any bottles or lidded beakers that your child uses as we only have un-lidded beakers. 

Medications

• Please ensure that you have simple pain relief medication at home for after your child’s operation. Paracetamol and ibuprofen can be bought from any chemist and supermarket. There is also a pharmacy shop in the main hospital.
• Please bring all inhalers with you on the day.
• Please bring your child’s completed admission form which you will have received with your child’s appointment letter.

On the day of surgery 

• Your admission will be at the children’s day surgery unit at Castle Hill Hospital.
• The time on your child’s appointment letter is not the time of surgery, it is the time that all patients should arrive to be admitted and see the doctors. Operations are usually done in age order starting with the youngest, though this can change.
• We ask that only one parent or adult with parental responsibility come on the day of surgery as we are limited for space in our waiting areas and recovery.
• Your child’s consent form will be completed on the operation day with the surgeon. This must be signed by somebody with parental responsibility for the child. This in most cases is the biological mother and father. Step-parents, grandparents and other family members do not automatically have parental responsibility for a child. This can only be given to them by a court by either an order or a residence order (this would need to be brought with you on the day of surgery).
• You and your child will be staying with us for a least 1 hour after they have woken following their operation (some operations may require longer).
• It is not safe to take your child home on public transport (bus or train) after an operation. You must arrange to take your child home in a car or taxi. Travel expenses can be claimed in certain circumstances from the General Office, main hospital building.
• If you are using the hospital car parks, please ensure that you bring sufficient money / change as we do not have any change in the unit.
• We do not allow parents or visitors to eat and drink in front of children who have come in for surgery. It is unfair to children who are not allowed to eat and drink so you will be asked to stop. Please be aware of this and prepare yourself to support your child.
• All information about wound care, follow-up appointments, contact numbers and care at home will be given to you when your child is discharged. Please do not leave the Day Surgery Unit until you have received this important information from one of the nurses. 

After the operation

• Your child will require time off from school or nursery. This will be between 24 hours and approximately 2 weeks, depending on the type of surgery your child has had and if they require a wound check. This information will be given to you at pre-assessment and / or discharge.
• A responsible adult must care for your child during the whole time of the recovery period. Your child must not be left at home alone,( even if they are of an age to be left on their own), for at least 24 hours after the operation.
• Your child may need to avoid sports and other physical activity for a period of time depending on the type of surgery. This information will be given to you at pre-assessment and / or discharge.

For more information, please visit this link which details important information about anaesthetic: https://www.rcoa.ac.uk/patients/patient-information-resources/information-children-parents-carers

General Advice and Consent

Most of your questions should have been answered by this leaflet, but remember that this is only a starting point for discussion with the healthcare team.

Consent to treatment

Before any doctor, nurse or therapist examines or treats your child, they must seek your consent or permission. In order to make a decision, you need to have information from health professionals about the treatment or investigation which is being offered to your child. You should always ask them more questions if you do not understand or if you want more information.

The information you receive should be about your child’s condition, the alternatives available for your child, and whether it carries risks as well as the benefits. What is important is that your consent is genuine or valid. That means:

• you must be able to give your consent
• you must be given enough information to enable you to make a decision
• you must be acting under your own free will and not under the strong influence of another person

Information about your child

We collect and use your child’s information to provide your child with care and treatment. As part of your child’s care, information about your child will be shared between members of a healthcare team, some of whom you may not meet. Your child’s information may also be used to help train staff, to check the quality of our care, to manage and plan the health service, and to help with research. Wherever possible we use anonymous data.

We may pass on relevant information to other health organisations that provide your child with care. All information is treated as strictly confidential and is not given to anyone who does not need it. If you have any concerns please ask your child’s doctor, or the person caring for your child.

Under the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018 we are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of any information we hold about your child. For further information visit the following page: Confidential Information about You.

If you need information about your child’s (or a child you care for) health and wellbeing and their care and treatment in a different format, such as large print, braille or audio, due to disability, impairment or sensory loss, please advise a member of staff and this can be arranged.