GIRFT has added another 20 templates to its online children and young people’s (CYP) toolkit to support secondary care clinicians in responding to common Advice and Guidance (A&G) requests.
Conditions such as hypermobility and obesity are among the new additions* to the toolkit, which aims to enhance communication between primary and secondary care and with families, and reduce unnecessary delays.
Click to read and download the CYP Advice & Guidance toolkit and templates
A&G, also known as Specialist Advice Services or Advice and Refer, allows GPs to obtain advice from specialists in secondary care, which means families get a decision and advice on their child’s suspected condition more quickly than waiting to see a specialist in the outpatient department.
The GIRFT toolkit is supported by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and has been developed by clinicians from both primary and secondary care to ensure the templates are helpful to the specialists using them and the GPs receiving them.
It offers tips on making optimal use of A&G and now includes 40 templates which can be adapted in response to A&G requests for common children and young people’s conditions.
The colour-coded templates aim to improve the timeliness and quality of responses back to GPs, allowing a personalised response which is tailored to the individual child’s presentation, with the most important information clearly highlighted and scope for local processes and requirements to be flagged.
Ronny Cheung, GIRFT’s paediatric advisor and a consultant general paediatrician at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“A&G can play a key role in ensuring that children and families are supported most effectively, supporting GPs in providing optimum care closer to home. The templates in our toolkit provide a starting point for an evidence-based conversation between clinicians working in primary and secondary care, to support a child- and family-centred approach to delivering high quality care, whilst minimising unnecessary and inefficient outpatient activity.”
The CYP toolkit is part of a series of GIRFT A&G toolkits covering six specialties. The full range can be found on the GIRFT FutureNHS workspace here (log-in required), along with a video explaining how to use them.
*The full list of new templates
- Abnormal bloods
- Allergic rhinitis
- Chronic loose stools
- Cow’s milk allergy (CMA)
- Food allergy – diagnoses and management of childhood food allergies
- Food allergy – differential diagnosis of suspected food-related rashes
- Frequent infections
- Hydrocoele
- Hypermobility
- Large head in infancy
- Menstrual disorders
- Noisy breathing
- Overweight and obesity
- Precocious puberty
- Pre-pubertal gynaecological conditions
- Recurrent chest pain
- Restrictive eating
- Reynaud’s phenomenon (RP)
- Sleep
