This report constitutes the second round of national inpatient care audit for paediatric patients. The report contains detailed information about the provision of inpatient care including how the situation has changed across the different rounds of the audit.
Key recommendations
- As highlighted in the 2010 paediatric organisational audit report, 71% of sites do not have formal arrangements for annual review. The implementation at a national level, of an agreed systematic annual review would avoid the likelihood of routine data collection items such as smoking and pubertal status being overlooked.
- The local policy for thrombus prevention (including use of heparin) in paediatric patients with IBD should be reviewed by each paediatric IBD service.
- In line with ESPGHAN/ECCO recommendations, every paediatric patient admitted as an emergency with ulcerative colitis should have a PUCAI score recorded on admission and daily thereafter as a guide to the need for medical rescue therapy or colectomy.
- Local hospitals should develop a practice where testing for Clostridium difficile toxin is routinely carried out alongside tests for SSC in all stool samples sent for IBD patients admitted with diarrhoea.
- All paediatric CD inpatients should have growth and nutrition reviewed during their admission to ensure that any growth faltering is not overlooked.