The priorities for all the clinical working groups with the Surgery in Children Operational Delivery Network are ultimately agreed by the group members. The priorities include ensuring that regional practice aligns to national standards, identifying and attempting to address regional variation in practice, and collaboration to ensure continuous service development at both a local and regional level. Over-arching priorities are set annually and are reviewed regularly at group meetings. The group will annually review its progress against their agreed priorities, and report back to the Surgery in Children Network Board.
Outcomes and reports from all of our projects can be accessed by group members through our NHS Futures page – please click here for access.
Priorities identified at the start of January 2025 include:
- Ongoing review of the delivery of the agreed regional day case pathway for adenotonsillectomy – this is completed and available here
- Review of quarterly day case rates to ensure region continues to meet national day case target and considers readmission rates for tonsillectomy procedures
- Agreed best practice pathways and practice within the network for the management of difficult airways (both elective and emergency)
- Conduct audit to understand if best practice for difficult airways is being delivered across the region
- Provide regional training opportunity to support teams to manage difficult airways
- Review the out of hours ENT provision for children across the network
- Review pathways for supporting removal of ingested button batteries
- Approval regional pathways to support local management of atypical TB
- Undertake a survey to review practice related to nasoendoscopy
- Consider the pathways for delivery of grommets across region to ensure it aligns to new NICE guidance