Putting Safety at the Forefront of Paediatric Care
Our annual conference this year took place on 15th October and brought together over 90 delegates from across all the PiP member organisations, plus representatives from NHSE, Public Health, Local Authority and Voluntary sector, making it a truly collaborative networking day.
Chaired by PiP Director, Mary Passant, the focus of the conference was designed and driven by the members, asking for support, education and discussion around patient safety, with a particular focus on practical examples of how colleagues across the region are tackling safety concerns and preparing for Martha’s Rule.
The event opened with a heart-wrenching reminder of why bringing parents, carers and families close into care delivery and risk identification is critical.
The powerful and moving talk from Melissa Mead MBE of the UK Sepsis Trust focused on ‘The Reality of Not Thinking Sepsis’ and left delegates in the room with a strong message that communication and understanding parental concerns is a fundamental element of patient safety.
Following on from this, Honorary Professor Damian Roland, Consultant Paediatrician in Emergency Medicine from the University of Leicester Teaching Hospital enhanced the message of looking beyond the ‘score’, sharing work that has been done to encourage and enable a more holistic review of risk.
Martha’s Rule was a key focus area for all PiP members and will continue to be so over the coming months and year. Delegates were able to hear about the work that has been done in the region’s tertiary centre; and think about how some of this learning can be applied across the District General and Community Trusts and the unique challenges this brings. The conference heard how the West Midlands Paediatric Critical Care Network has been selected and funded as one of only a few pilot sites nationally to support learning and implementation of Martha’s Rule across the region and Natalie Read, Lead Nurse, urged organisations to get involved in this unique opportunity.
Throughout the remainder of the day, the network of PiP members were able to hear from a whole range of projects and initiatives that have been undertaken across our member organisations, including work from Karl Emms, Patient Safety Lead and Muriam Ahmed, Junior Sister at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital NHSFT on reducing incidence and harm from extravasation by risk rating all known medications. There was a real appetite to share and learn from this work to spread benefit across the region, demonstrating the true power and benefit of networking. 
Many thanks in addition to all the project showcase presentations which highlighted excellent quality improvement initiatives happening across a range of services. Dr Zahra Olateju shared work on reducing GP referral rejections at Royal Wolverhampton, a team from Shrewsbury & Telford NHSFT shared two care bundles they have developed to support young people with eating disorders and to improve identification and management of the deteriorating patient. Birmingham Children’s Hospital shared a further two projects, with Dr Eleanor McCullagh highlighting the collaborative work she has led with Public Health England at Birmingham City Council on improving access to healthy start vitamins from the Emergency Department; and Karl Emms challenged delegates to test assumptions with work on improving nasogastric tube placement leading him to identify errors in certified equipment.
Congratulations go to Dr William Rook, who won the prize presentation for his work on improving anaesthesia residents’ management of perioperative emergencies.
Additional thanks go to our marketplace sponsors who added an additional educational element to the day – ADHD 360 introducing us to the current and growing demands of ADHD services, Broadstone Technologies introducing us to how we can learn from the financial sector; and Coventry and Warwickshire demonstrating their CYP Interactive Competency Framework.
The day closed with the Annual General Meeting, a round up of the year’s activities, memberships and financial position. PiP are proud to continue to be a thriving host for clinical networks across the West Midlands. Additions to the network programmes this year have included PLANN Paediatric Liver AHP and Nurse Network and the Midlands CYP Mental Health Network, both of which were welcomed into the PiP programme and have exciting work plans for the year ahead.
For any information on any of the topics discussed, or to get involved with any of the sponsors or initiatives, please contact us
