General Summary
Below is a summary of the working group’s current progress and presentation to the annual meeting on our activity and the national audit:
I have prepared an updated audit tool which I have sent out to each centre for which we have a nominated lead and I hope we can complete a reasonable retrospective review in each centre this year. I would also encourage each centre, whether they are able to do this or not, to begin prospectively registering cases in collaboration with the surgical team to limit future difficulties in case identification. This can be done using the same reporting form.
The GiRFT (Getting it Right First Time, https://gettingitrightfirsttime.co.uk/) initiative continues apace and is already influencing local decisions on service provision. Although it is not a UK-wide initiative, it does indicate the potential impact and pitfalls of external outcome analysis. The audit tool will produce summary statistics for the period reported on for intussusception (01/04/2013-31/03/2018) if data is entered to cover that period. This will allow each centre to compare its own data with the data prepared centrally by GiRFT where applicable.
At this stage in the audit, only basic data is necessary. As some centres are already doing, additional information of immediate local interest can be collected using the same register of patients. With sufficient data, a usable time series will be generated (Fig 2) although even in smaller centres the aggregate performance statistic will give useful feedback even at this stage. The intention remains that data will be locally held but centrally aggregated with whatever safeguards are necessary in terms of anonymization to comply with GDPR and local information governance policy. An appropriate and sustainable more formal solution is still being sought for this aspect of the project.