A survey conducted by the college’s Children’s Surgical Forum and funded by the Department of Health revealed that there is a shortfall in safe, sustainable and accessible general paediatric surgery in district general hospitals. The college has warned that unless local hospitals adopt measures to share resources, services and expertise, and surgical training opportunities are taken up, this shortfall will continue.
Analysis of data from more than 300 hospitals found that there are currently 305 district general hospitals available to provide general paediatric surgery, but less than half (48.5 per cent) were found to be able to provide an emergency service. Around 60 per cent were able to offer elective surgical care despite a greater percentage having the infrastructure to provide such services.
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