| CLINICAL CENTRE

Pediatric diseases show seasonal tendencies; the number of patients may increase by tenfold overnight for example if there is flu, diarrhea, mass accidents, or mass poisoning.
If the period is very busy, the emergency consultation and the general pediatric consultation split and work at two locations doubling the staff, otherwise at one location only.
Pediatric patients may come because the parents have decided to see a doctor, or they may come referred from adult or mixed-age GP surgeries, from pediatric primary care, or from other pediatric outpatient clinics. They may be brought by the parents and also by the Ambulance Service. In severe cases hospitalization may be needed but in less severe cases the outpatient unit initiates the treatment and the primary care will continue with it. Another responsibility of the specialist outpatient clinic is to define organ specificity and refer patients to other pediatric specializations.