A&E doctor who transforms the lives of knife victims is voted best in London
A PAEDIATRICIAN has been voted the best A&E doctor in London for her tireless work with children injured in gang violence and others t a ke n into emergency foster care.
Dr Gayle Hann pioneered changes at North Middlesex Hospital, in Edmonton, that have been credited with saving or transforming hundreds of lives a year. The hospital treats about 50 young knife and shooting victims a year, often in spikes of four or five a week when an attack sparks retribution.
Dr Hann, 46, aims to avoid “treating and streeting” knife crime victims — patching them up and sending them back on to the street without investigating what caused them to be admitted to A&E.
She told the Standard: “I don’t want to be just ‘treating and streeting’ them. I want to be involved in the solution. It’s not just about stitching them up and putting them back out there.
“It’s about trying to engage with young people and trying to find out what is going on in their own homes that makes them vulnerable. They often have other vulnerabilities — parents with drug problems or mental health issues. I’m trying to find people who have the vulnerabilities that we can help.”
She helped secure funding to enable the youth charity Oasis to embed two workers in A&E. It has received 500 referrals in four years. Seventy young people agreed to receive help.
Dr Hann works with a community knife crime group that teaches teenagers how to give life-saving first aid. Victims often turn up at A&E themselves rather than by ambulance.
“We are seeing young people come back with more serious injuries further down the line,” she said. “There have been serious case reviews where young people involved with gangs have presented with less serious injuries and then ended up with a fatal injury.”
About 50 children a year are brought to the hospital after being found alone at home or wandering the streets suffer- ing from neglect or abuse, often with nothing but the clothes they are wearing. Dr Hann established a “kid’s kit” scheme — initially crowdfunded by colleagues — that donates rucksacks filled with clothes, toiletries and toys to children going into emergency foster care.
Her other initiatives include spotting undiagnosed conditions, such as congenital heart disease, in refugees and establishing an FGM service.
Dr Hann, who volunteered to rebuild an orphanage in Romania in the early Nineties, said: “I’m the ‘named doctor’ [lead doctor] for child protection in an area of huge deprivation. It’s challenging but it’s really rewarding. I only have to help one child to feel my day has been really rewarding.”
She was nominated by Catherine West, Labour MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, in the NHS 70 Parliamentary Awards. Dr Hann won the London regional award for urgent and emer- gency care and will compete for the national award next week.
Ms West said: “I am delighted that this award has given Dr Hann and all the emergency team at North Midd recognition for their commitment and tireless work. Emergency medicine is demanding work and more so locally where A&E is frequently working to capacity.”
⬤ To donate to the Kid’s Kit appeal: http://amzn.eu/0J4gZdt