Members of the SW Surgery in Children Operational Delivery Network General Surgery & Urology Working Group worked together in 2021 to agree best practice recommendations for suspected appendicitis in children.
The group worked collaboratively to share their existing pathways and to agree best practice for children who are being considered for appendicectomy procedures in organisations across the South West region. The group agreed to focus on this pathway following the publication of the Paediatric General Surgery and Urology GIRFT Report in February 2021, which made recommendations on the treatment of appendicitis in children based on concern at variation in practice and a nationally high negative appendicectomy rate.
The core network team worked with members to facilitate discussions and collate agreed best practice, and will now review, audit, and support teams to deliver these pathway recommendations across the region.
A national Best Practice Pathway for Paediatric Acute Abdominal Pain and Appendicectomy was published by the GIRFT team was published in 2022, which the ODN pathway aligns to.
Please note – these recommendations are not meant to replace
local clinical protocols or pathways, and are aimed at supporting
regional collaboration and service improvements across the
South West Surgery in Children Operational Delivery Network.
Colleagues are welcome to review the document and feedback
is always welcome.
