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Chelsea Children’s Hospital becomes the first hospital in the UK to offer state of the art Swallowing Station for children

19 June 2015

Thanks to The Children’s Hospital Trust Fund, the charity caring for children at Chelsea Children’s Hospital, the hospital now has the UK’s first Digital Swallowing Station for children.

Thanks to The Children’s Hospital Trust Fund, the charity caring for children at Chelsea Children’s Hospital, the hospital now has the UK’s first Digital Swallowing Station for children.

The Children's Hospital Trust Fund has successfully completed a new appeal, the Gulp Appeal, to help the increasing number of babies and children with swallowing problems and complex needs.  The charity has now purchased a Digital Swallowing Station for the hospital and it is anticipated that the first patients will be seen shortly.

This new medical equipment will revolutionise the way babies and children are diagnosed and treated for swallowing problems by providing the most comprehensive insight and understanding into a patient’s swallowing process currently available in the world.  The value of the information the specialists will receive will allow specialists to diagnose patients much more quickly than currently possible and in some cases avoid babies and children undergoing surgery.

The medical equipment has been principally funded by a team of nine cyclists, all working for CBRE Healthcare & Life Sciences Business Unit part of the Global Corporate Services Division at CBRE, who raised over £40,000 to the Gulp Appeal through the “End-to-End Cycle Challenge” which they have just completed.  

Last week the team cycled 967 miles for 75 hours nonstop from the very Northern most tip of the UK at John O’Groats in Scotland to the farthest tip of Cornwall at Land’s End which they reached on Friday 12 June at 7pm.  During the journey they climbed around 15,000 metres, which is around 13 times up Alpe d’Huez (the biggest mountain in the Tour de France)!  This ride ordinarily takes nine days but they completed in 75 hours.

The team was headed by Andy Glasspool, Business Unit Director, at CBRE who said: “Even though we have trained for nine months and we expected the challenge to be tough, it was harder than we had imagined.  Apart from the relentless climbing the most difficult part was coping with the sleep deprivation.  But it’s really worth it.  We are so proud to help The Children’s Hospital Trust Fund and support such a great cause.”

Dr Krishna Soondrum, Consultant Paediatric Gastroenterologist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, said “We are so thrilled to have this revolutionary equipment and so thankful to The Children’s Hospital Trust Fund and CBRE Healthcare & Life Sciences Business Unit for the incredible job they have done.  We are very humble to see what they have achieved.  We are very proud to be the first hospital in the UK to use a Digital Swallowing Workstation for children.  Now that the dedicated specialists have completed their training we can’t wait to start using it in the next few weeks.”

This is the second time Chelsea Children’s Hospital is the first children’s hospital in the UK to offer state of the art equipment. Following The Children’s Hospital Trust Fund’s Pluto Appeal, the hospital now runs a robotic surgical programme, the first to be dedicated to children’s surgery in the UK.  Through the advanced precision of robotic surgery children at Chelsea Children’s Hospital benefit from quicker recovery, smaller scars, less pain and complications. 

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