The paediatric emergency department at Necker

Why it is on the list

Necker is the children's hospital of Paris and calls itself the first paediatric hospital in the world.¹ It covers every medical and surgical paediatric specialty, holds the Île-de-France night and weekend rota for paediatric neurosurgery, is one of the first paediatric transplant centres in Europe, with 400 transplants a year, and has 26 operating theatres; the SAMU of Paris is based here.¹ It is a hospital of AP-HP working with Université Paris Cité, and is certified for high quality of care by the Haute Autorité de Santé.¹

It takes no adult emergencies; the nearest adult units are at Hôpital Cochin and Hôpital européen Georges-Pompidou.² For a child who needs a doctor but is not an emergency, Urgencemed Paris 15, a walk-in centre inside Necker's Robert-Debré building, sees patients from 9 am to 10 pm every day.² The hospital sends some emergencies elsewhere: the eye in the afternoon, at night, on Sundays and on public holidays to the Ophtalmopole at Hôpital Cochin, 8 rue Méchain (+33 1 58 41 23 00); the mouth and teeth after 5.30 pm, at night, at weekends and on public holidays to the Pitié-Salpêtrière; the hand to Hôpital Robert-Debré in the 19th (+33 1 40 03 20 00).² For anyone 16 and over, the 24/7 unit at the American Hospital of Paris is the right choice; for a doctor at the hotel rather than a trip to hospital, a house call from SOS Médecins.

How to get it

There is no appointment: bring the child to the paediatric emergency entrance, door LN2 of the Laennec building, at any hour.² If the child's life may be in danger, call 15 instead, stay on the line until told to hang up and follow the regulating doctor's advice.² For a suspected poisoning, the Paris poison centre answers every day, 24 hours a day, on +33 1 40 05 48 48.² The hospital switchboard answers around the clock on +33 1 44 49 40 00.³ The nearest metro stations are Duroc (lines 10 and 13), Sèvres-Lecourbe (line 6), Pasteur (lines 6 and 12) and Falguière (line 12); from Gare Montparnasse it is 15 minutes on foot.³ Cars park outside the grounds; a drop-off point is kept for patients with reduced mobility.³ Maternity emergencies are also taken 24 hours a day, on the fifth floor of the Laennec building, five above the ground floor.²

If the child is admitted, parents may be with them day and night, and most rooms have a bed or a reclining chair for a parent; ask the ward's senior nurse (cadre de santé) about staying the night.⁴ The families' office in the Laennec hall, on the lower ground floor, helps with the stay.⁵ A day nursery on the right of the entrance courtyard takes brothers and sisters from 4 months to 6 years, Monday to Friday, 8.30 am to 6 pm, booked ahead on +33 1 47 34 69 47; children under 15 are not let onto the wards except by arrangement with the senior nurse and the child's doctor.⁵⁴ The pages give no fee for an emergency visit: for a child insured abroad, ask the switchboard on +33 1 44 49 40 00 how the visit is billed.

Discretion

It is the emergency department of a public AP-HP hospital that serves everyone and takes every child emergency at any hour, with no appointment: it is shared with whoever else comes in.¹² Children's emergencies have their own door, LN2, in the Laennec building.² On the wards, parents come and go day and night, other visitors are kept to two per room counting the parents, and phones must be off or on silent.⁴ News of a child in hospital is given by the ward itself, by telephone, during its opening hours.⁶