Paediatric General Surgery and Urology

The GIRFT specialty review comprised deep dive visits to all of the 22 specialist trusts and the 67 highest-volume non-specialist trusts – 89 in total – and involved frontline clinicians, nurses, finance staff and managers. The clinicians included surgeons, anaesthetists, neonatologists, intensivists, paediatricians and radiologists.

Recommendations and actions in the GIRFT national report aim to improve the outcomes and experience of children who need surgery by modifying the existing model of care in England to ensure surgical expertise is concentrated in the right place for the right patients. The report also looks at how care offered in hospitals for common conditions such as appendicitis can be improved.

Summary Paediatric Indicator Table (SPaedIT)

In June 2023, GIRFT and NHS England’s Children and Young People (CYP) launched a new data tool to support healthcare providers with elective recovery of CYP services.

The Summary Paediatric Indicator Table (SPaedIT) brings together provider-level data summarising demand, capacity, flow and outcomes, all in one place in an easily-accessible dashboard. Refreshed monthly, the data is available across eight key paediatric surgical specialties and more than 35 metrics. Learn more.

Professor Simon Kenny

Clinical Lead for Paediatric General Surgery and Urology

National Clinical Director for children and young people with NHS England and a consultant paediatric surgeon at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital

Simon is NHS England’s National Clinical Director for children and young people. He has been a consultant paediatric surgeon at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool since 2003. His clinical interests include neonatal surgery, laparoscopy, lower GI surgery and paediatric urology while his research interests include long-term outcomes in paediatric surgery and regenerative medicine.

Simon is chair of the Clinical Outcomes Committee of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons and has led on introduction of population-based outcome measures through national registries and analysis of Hospital Episode Statistics data. From 2009 to 2016, Simon served as clinical director of the surgery, critical care, anaesthesia and cardiac clinical business unit, playing a significant role in redesigning services and moving in to the new award-winning Alder Hey in the Park in 2015.

He is an honorary senior lecturer in child health at the University of Liverpool, and was awarded Honorary Fellowship of the American Academy of Paediatrics in 2004. Simon graduated with MB ChB(Hons) from University of Birmingham and an MD from the University of Liverpool.

Recommendations in GIRFT paediatric surgery report aim to create a world-leading network

Children and babies who need operations for the rarest and most complex conditions would benefit if surgery was delivered in fewer centres of expertise, according to the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) national report for paediatric general surgery and urology.

Author Professor Simon Kenny, GIRFT’s clinical lead for paediatric surgery and the National Clinical Director for Children and Young People with NHS England and NHS Improvement, recommends modifying the existing model of paediatric care in England to ensure surgical expertise is better concentrated in the right place for the right patients.