Children's Epilepsy Services
Meet the Team
Dr. Munir Hussain - Consultant Paediatrician and Lead for Epilepsy Service
Dr. Kate Goyder - Consultant Paediatrician with special interest in Epilepsy
Dr. Sharon Doyle - Specialist Associate with special interest in Epilepsy
Sophie Fitzwalter - Children and Young People's Epilepsy Nurse Specialist
Deborah Brewer - Children and Young People's Epilepsy Nurse
Markie Hannah - Nurse Associate
Marie Fitch - Secretary to Dr. Munir Hussain
About the Service
The Children and Young People's Epilepsy Service is a hospital based service, working both acutely and within the community. The service provides support to children, young people and their families, as well as providing support to educational and social care settings.
Following a diagnoses of epilepsy, the service supports people up to the age of 16 if attending mainstream school, or 19 years if in a special educational setting. We also work jointly with the Neurology team at Southampton Hospital, our tertiary centre, to provide care for our patients with complex epilepsy.
About Epilepsy
Epilepsy is one of the most common serious neurological conditions in the world, and affects approximately 600,000 people in the UK; equivalent to 1 in 103 people. The total number of children aged 4 and under with epilepsy is 1 in 509, and the number of people aged 18 years and under is 1 in 220. Around 87 people are diagnosed with epilepsy in the UK every day.
There are at least 40 different seizure types and people may have one or several different seizure types.
More than one in five people with epilepsy will have a learning or intellectual disability.
Aims of the Service:
- To provide specialist information, treatment and support to families and young people living with epilepsy in the local area.
- To prevent hospital admissions or enable earlier hospital discharge through telephone and face to face advice and management.
Services Provided:
- Consultant-led clinics; new patient, follow up and annual review clinics.
- Nurse-led clinics, consultations and home visits.
- Joint neurology clinics with neurology team at tertiary centre.
- Neurophysiology investigations.
- Neuroimaging.
- Young person clinics.
- Care planning.
- Provision of training and support in the community for schools, nurseries and other service providers.
- Where appropriate, joint working with psychology and counselling services.
Referral Process:
- Internal hospital referral - Consultant to Consultant.
- Acute referral from Emergency Department or Children's Assessment Unit.
- Primary care providers - if epilepsy is suspected, a referral should be made to the team in writing for further investigation.
Further Information
For further information and support please use the links below:
