The CF Service looks after children aged 0-18years with cystic fibrosis (CF) in the community. We have 37 young people with CF that live in South Northampton which includes Brackley, Daventry, Milton Keynes, Rothwell and Northampton.
The CF multi- disciplinary team is made up of- a paediatric consultant, a specialist nurse, a physiotherapist, a dietician and a psychologist. At Northampton we share CF care with Oxford children’s cystic fibrosis network & work closely with them.
The CF service includes:
- The consultant & specialist nurse will visit the child & family on diagnosis of CF
- Home visits for assessment of a child’s clinical condition.
- Performing clinical procedures for a child in their own home ie insert continuous glucose monitoring sensors.
- Initiate new drug therapies at home ie Pulmozyme/hypertonic saline.
- Advice/support by phone, text and email or face to face.
- Support the child and family when having Intravenous (IV) antibiotics at home.
- Providing care for the children who have a portacath, which is a central venous access device (CVAD). It is used for IV antibiotics, obtaining blood samples etc.
- Assessing a child when they have a wet cough. This involves ensuring a cough swab/sputum is obtained and any treatment must be started which can be oral, nebulised or IV antibiotics, or often a mixture of all of these.
- Starting a child with CF on anti-pseudomonas treatment as soon as possible after it has been isolated on a cough swab/sputum.
- Monitoring lung function when the child has a cough, to assess the success of any treatment undertaken.
- Teaching is given to all involved in a child’s CF on all aspects of the daily care they need to keep them as healthy as possible, this includes school/nursery’s/after school clubs.
- We provide specialist nursing expertise to all others involved in the care of children with CF, this may be in a community setting or in hospital
The service is available Monday - Friday (Excluding Bank Holidays)
Office hours are flexible as they are dependent on workload.