The clinic offers a multimodal outpatient therapy approach under the leadership of Dr. Zernikow. Outpatient numbers increased constantly in the first few years and have remained constant since 2007 (see Diagram 1 below). Approximately 1,200 children and adolescents visit our outpatient clinic each year.

The inpatient multimodal pain therapy clinic was established in conjunction with the outpatient clinic. The number of patients on the “Lighthouse” pain ward has increased since its opening in 2005 (see Diagram 2 below). About 300 children and adolescents are now given intensive multimodal pain therapy at the Vestische Children’s and Adolescents’ Clinic each year.

With the increasing patient numbers, the catchment area of the outpatient clinic has increased, and now stretches over the whole of Germany, and in individual cases even further afield. Eighty per cent of our patients come from a geographical area of up to 109 km around the clinic. However, patients also come from outside Germany, for example, from Belgium, Great Britain, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Morocco or Switzerland.