Refer a Child to Limi Children's Hospital

Our Promise to Referrers

You know the family, the history and the community the child goes home to. We keep you in the picture from the first call to the final report.

1. We acknowledge. When you refer, we confirm we have the referral and tell you who in the team is taking it.
2. We update. For a child who is admitted, we tell you the main findings and changes in the plan, with the family's consent.
3. We report. When the assessment or admission is complete, you receive a written report: diagnosis, treatment given, results and the plan.
4. We refer back. When specialist care is done, the child returns to you for ongoing care, with clear instructions for follow-up and what would need a return to us.

How to Refer a Child

Call first on 0813 408 5400 or 0809 059 9995 and say you are a health professional referring a child. For a routine outpatient referral, the family can also book through the online calendar and bring your letter to the first visit.

A letter that answers the questions below saves repeat tests and lets the team prepare before the child arrives. Handwritten is fine.

Give the family a copy of the letter and any results to bring, and tell them about HMO or NHIA authorisation where it applies. Families can read what to bring and how approvals work before they come.

Newborn and Critical Transfer

Call before transfer so our team can prepare. When you call before the baby or child leaves you, the team advises on stabilisation, confirms the child can be received, and has the right people and equipment waiting. A transport incubator for newborn transfer is arranged case by case, when one is available and the transfer is clinically arranged: ask when you call.

Most harm in transfer happens when a child leaves before they are stable, or arrives cold, hypoglycaemic or without information. The card below sets out the core steps from WHO guidance on newborn and emergency care and from neonatal transport guidance. Adapt it to your training, your equipment and your local protocols.

For a critically ill older child, the same principles apply: call, stabilise airway, breathing and circulation, treat seizures and low glucose, keep the child warm, document, and send an escort. If the child deteriorates on the way and you cannot reach Limi quickly, go to the nearest emergency department.

Our newborn care and NICU page describes what happens after a newborn arrives, and emergency and intensive care covers older children.

Referring a Baby with a Birth Defect

Some babies are born with a difference in the structure or function of the body: a heart defect, a cleft lip or palate, a neural tube defect, an abdominal wall defect, a limb difference, a blocked bowel or anus, or a genetic condition such as Down syndrome. Many can be treated. Outcomes depend heavily on early recognition, careful first handling and prompt specialist care.

Every facility that cares for newborns should recognise, document and report birth defects, as set out in the WHO, CDC and ICBDSR birth defects surveillance manual and in national reporting requirements. We follow these steps, and bring together under one roof the specialties these babies need.

1. Recognise. A full newborn examination, head to toe, before the baby goes home: face, palate, spine, limbs, genitalia, anus, heart sounds, breathing and colour. Some heart defects show only as fast breathing, poor feeding or a low oxygen saturation.
2. Protect and stabilise. Keep the baby warm, and check glucose and oxygen. Cover an exposed defect such as an open spine or abdominal wall with clean, moist, non-stick dressing and plastic wrap. Do not feed a baby with vomiting, a swollen abdomen or no passage of stool; call.
3. Document. Describe what you see and when it was noticed, with the pregnancy history, maternal medicines and illnesses, and family history. Photographs are useful for the specialist, taken only with the parents' consent and shared securely.
4. Call and refer. The team advises on urgency when you call. The neonatal, heart (cardiology, with heart scans or echocardiography), surgical, therapy and developmental teams plan the baby's care together, around one baby rather than separate clinics. When a baby needs care that another centre provides, we say so and help arrange it.
5. Support the family. Parents are told plainly what is known, what is not yet known, and what the next steps are. A birth defect is no one's fault, and saying so matters.
6. Report and refer back. Cases are documented for surveillance as national reporting requires, and you receive a report and a plan for shared follow-up.

Services You Can Refer To

Limi Paediatric Practice Updates

Every month, LCH runs an online session for doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists and allied professionals. Each one is case-led: a common problem seen in clinics, PHCs, pharmacies and emergency rooms across Nigeria, the current evidence, and the decisions that change what happens to the child, including when to refer.

Dates and topics are announced per session, with a registration link for each. To hear about the next session, follow the hospital on YouTube or Instagram, or call and ask for the date.

Abuja Perinatal Symposium

Each year LCH hosts the Abuja Perinatal Symposium for the professionals who care for mothers and newborns: paediatricians, neonatologists, obstetricians, nurses, midwives and trainees. More than 300 attended the fourth edition in 2025. About the symposium.

HMOs, Schools and Organisations

HMOs, employers, schools and crèches: to discuss care for your members, staff or pupils, call 0813 408 5400. Schools can also read about first aid, health checks and training for schools.