Experienced Paediatrician & Newborn Specialist
Dr Watkin: Paediatrician & Neonatologist
For those of you who want to know more about Dr Watkin’s credentials as an experienced paediatrician, we have laid out fairly extensive information about her experience below. It splits into two distinct topics:
- Newborn (Neonatal) Experience
- Paediatric Experience
In Cayman, the two distinct aspects of care are normally all clustered under the role of a paediatrician (pediatrician) but the care of a newborn, especially a preterm one, and the care of a child require distinctly different knowledge and expertise. Cayman is not that big and this limits what it can support. However, Dr Watkin came to Cayman, 7 years ago, specifically to bring an enhanced level of neonatal care to the islands, whilst also offering the full range of paediatric care. At the time she was the only tertiary-qualified and accredited neonatologist with full admitting rights to George Town Hospital (HSA) that had extensive experience of looking after very preterm infants. In addition to herself, Dr Watkin has subsequently brought Dr Siobhan Jaques and Dr Rob Bomont both tertiary neonatologists to the island.
Newborn (Neonatal) Experience
She was employed at Nottingham City Hospital from December 1994 until April 2006, some 11½ years (including a significant number as Chief of Service) and at University College London Hospital as a locum from 2009-10 and as a permanent consultant from December 2010 until July 2016 (with 5 years as Chief of Service here too), at which point she took up post as the primary neonatal specialist for the island of Grand Cayman.
Nottingham City Hospital had 6,000 births and delivered over 3,000 neonatal intensive care and high dependency care days per year.
Out of hours, Dr Watkin was on call for both hospitals in Nottingham (10,000 births and 6,000 IC and HD days) and managed both complex neonatal medical and surgical cases.
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University College London Hospital is one of the UK leading specialist centres. It has 6,400 deliveries per year with over 1,000 admissions to the Neonatal Unit of extremely sick complex babies requiring in total nearly 6,000 neonatal intensive care and high dependency care days. UCLH has the highest inborn admission rate in the UK for babies born at less than 29 weeks gestation. UCLH has a renowned fetal medicine unit and is the delivery unit for babies who will need future care at Great Ormond Street Hospital. This means we took and cared for sick newborns from across the UK with complex problems especially cardiac problems, neurosurgical problems and general surgical problems including diaphragmatic hernias. UCLH is also a designated centre for brain cooling for birth-related newborn brain injury & has a significant number of referral of infants with complex neurological problems.
That probably all sounds rather over-scientific. Yes, it does mean that I have lots of experience in newborn care, including the most complex forms too. The majority of births don’t need that depth but when they do demand it, it’s obviously reassuring to have!
WHAT ELSE CAN I TELL YOU?
I have been the clinical lead for early care and ventilation in my 2 permanent UK consultant roles. I have considerable experience in all modes of ventilation and non-invasive respiratory support including conventional ventilation, volume guarantee, SIPAP, CPAP & HHF (if you want to know what these are, I will happily expand). I am highly competent in all neonatal procedures and perform on a regular basis neonatal resuscitation, intubation, line insertion including UAC & UVC & chest drain insertion, and cranial ultrasound.
At UCLH I ran the neonatal chronic lung disease clinic and at NCH I was involved in the follow-up of all preterm babies <30 weeks gestation until the age of 2 years. This included many infants with complex problems or family situations but also included monitoring of the developmental progress of all infants to ensure they thrived after their early experiences and challenges.
I have a vast experience in the management of the long-term neonate including severe chronic lung disease, feeding difficulties, complex congenital abnormalities and syndromes with a reduced life span. You’ll find I have excellent counselling and communication skills and extensive experience in involving teams and families in end-of-life decisions, obviously a scenario no parent wishes to face, or is adequately prepared for. As an experienced paediatrician, one of the comments I get that I am most proud of is how reassured people feel.
In Nottingham I developed additional special interests in the management of babies born to HIV positive mothers and babies born to drug using mothers. Fortunately, these are both comparatively rare on Cayman, although rather more common throughout the Caribbean. For each of my areas of special interest I was lead clinician and responsible for clinical improvement, evidence-based guideline development, audit and teaching. In my interests in babies born to HIV positive mothers I worked closely with the Obstetricians and Consultants in GU Medicine and Infectious Diseases.
Lastly, I am also a co-author of Pocket Neonatology, a well-regarded neonatal handbook used all over the World as the ‘go to’ practical guide for neonatal care.
Paediatric Experience
In her general paediatric role in Grand Cayman, Dr Watkin sees up to 20 children a day in the outpatient setting.
These children range from newborn to 16 years and have the full spectrum of childhood complaints from very minor to complex health and developmental problems. “That means I am becoming a more experienced paediatrician every day!” – Dr Watkin says.
Besides the more everyday care needs, the more complex conditions managed include respiratory disease, failure to thrive, short stature, diabetes, duchennes muscular dystrophy, complex cardiac disease and immune deficiency.
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In her general paediatric role in Grand Cayman, Dr Watkin sees up to 20 children a day in the outpatient setting.
These children range from newborn to 16 years and have the full spectrum of childhood complaints from very minor to complex health and developmental problems. “That means I am becoming a more experienced paediatrician every day!” – Dr Watkin says.
Besides the more everyday care needs, the more complex conditions managed include respiratory disease, failure to thrive, short stature, diabetes, duchennes muscular dystrophy, complex cardiac disease and immune deficiency.