Scope and Safety of Paediatric Surgery in a Model III Hospital
Joyce, P.D; Craig, R; Dakin, A.; Elsheik, E.; Ejaz, T.; Mansoor, S.; Toomey, D.P.
In 2016 the Faculty of Paediatrics in the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, in conjunction with the Royal College of in Surgeons Ireland and the Health Service Executive, published the National Clinical Programme for Paediatrics and Neonatology: improving services for general paediatric surgery1. The purpose of these guidelines was to ensure the provision of safe and efficient paediatric general surgery outside of specialist paediatric hospitals in both local and regional paediatric surgical facilities.
These guidelines were necessitated by a variety of factors including the retirement of a generation of consultant surgeons with paediatric surgical skills, a lack of paediatric surgical training for core trainees, increasing sub-specialisation within the field of general surgery with the resultant de-skilling of supporting anaesthetic, radiology and nursing colleagues, and inadequate funding of paediatric surgical services. These challenges are compounded by Ireland having the lowest number of paediatric surgeons per capita when compared to other European countries, despite having the highest birth rate in Western Europe1.
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