Paediatric Care
Paediatricians are doctors who have specialised in the care of children. Their role is primarily with sick babies and infants, children who have severe acute illnesses such as pneumonia or meningitis, and the care of children with chronic conditions such as epilepsy, cerebral palsy, or asthma.
Paediatricians do not routinely attend vaginal births, however a Paediatrician will attend a birth if there is a specific concern, for example multiple births, premature babies, breech deliveries, emergency caesarean sections, or a previously identified problem. Paediatricians routinely attend elective caesarean section births.
Paediatric care is available at John Flynn Private Hospital 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. A Paediatrician will examine your baby in the first 48 hours of its life to ensure there are no apparent congenital abnormalities or other major concerns.
You may wish to choose a specific Paediatrician, alternatively a Paediatrician can be recommended by your Obstetrician. This consult is also an opportunity for you to discuss baby management issues, any family history of relevance, or other concerns you might have.
The Paediatrician may visit you and your baby, on a regular basis, during your hospital stay. They will look for, concerns with feeding; jaundice; and particularly to check that no heart murmurs develop.
The Paediatrician will also organise to see your baby several weeks later, to check that all the normal developmental milestones are being achieved and that your baby is developing a good routine.
Subsequent to this visit, the baby will then be referred back to your General Practitioner for ongoing care and would then only need to see a Paediatrician if there were specific concerns identified by the General Practitioner.
You will receive a bill for this medical care which may include a gap payment. Unless there are some specific concerns, a baby does not generally need to be admitted to the Special Care Nursery and therefore medical care will be as an outpatient. This may mean that you are able to utilise the Medicare safety net.
Some parents may wish to have their sons circumcised. The policy of the Royal Australian College of Physicians is that there is no good medical indication to have this procedure performed. Circumcisions are not performed while babies are at John Flynn Private Hospital. This procedure can however be organised as an outpatient by the parents.
The Paediatricians attending John Flynn Private Hospital hope you have an enjoyable, supportive, and informative stay while at John Flynn Private Hospital, and a happy and healthy future with your child.
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