Birmingham Children's Hospital
	Queen Elizabeth Hospital

The Cleft Lip and Palate clinic at Birmingham Children's Hospital is held every Wednesday. When you attend the clinic you may be at the hospital for sometime, as several members of the Cleft Team may individually see your baby. At your first visit your baby will be weighed and photographed before you meet the surgeon. The cleft nurse specialist will usually be the first to see you. The surgeon and speech & language therapist will see you and your baby together. Trainees in these specialities may attend clinic; so there can appear to be a lot of people in the main clinic room.

A member of the team may take you to another room to look at a particular problem or offer advice. If you need to discuss something in private with one member of the team, please ask. It often helps if you have written your questions down before you come. Many children also need to visit audiology to have their hearing checked

You may be at the hospital for some time, with it being necessary to return to the waiting area, in-between seeing the different specialists. Most of the specialists that your child needs to see are available on a Wednesday, whilst you may spend some time at the hospital it is hoped that this will reduce repeated visits to the hospital.

Visiting the outpatient clinic can be a good time for you to visit the ward. If you would like to do this, please ask at your appointment.

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Once you have been referred to this clinic (either as a natural transition stage from Birmingham Children's Hospital, or your GP or Dentist) you will meet with our multidisciplinary team, many of whom you might recognise from Birmingham Children's Hospital, who will discuss any future treatment and care that you may need.

At your first clinic visits we may arrange for photographs/x-rays to be taken for your medical records.

You will also have the opportunity to discuss matters in relation to your cleft lip and/or palate.

You will see a number of different people at the clinic:

	Surgeon
	Restorative Dentistry
	Speech and Language Therapy
	Psychologist
	Geneticist

Location

The Cleft Clinic is held on the 2nd floor (Maxillofacial Department – Red Zone, Queen Elizabeth Hospital.