Major Trauma Audit Paediatric Report 2014-2019

Major Trauma Audit Paediatric Report 2014-2019 Image

This is the first report from the Major Trauma Audit to focus on paediatric patients who have suffered major trauma in Ireland. Children account for 5%, or 1 in 20, of all major traumas.

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Key Findings

The report highlights that falls, road traffic accidents and burns account for 71% of all major trauma in children in Ireland.

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Injury Prevention

The most common causes of major trauma in children in Ireland are falls, road traffic collisions and burns. Injury prevention strategies can be seen in the image across.

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Key Recommendations

  • The Health Service Executive’s (HSE’s) National Office for Trauma Services and Integrated Care Programme for Children will:

  • Use the Major Trauma Audit Paediatric Report 2014–2019 to develop interim paediatric major trauma care pathways until the new trauma system is fully developed and the new children’s hospital in Dublin is built, and to inform the requirements for rehabilitation services for trauma patients regionally and nationally.

  • Continue to progress the development of a coordinated trauma system and fully implement the Trauma System for Ireland strategy.

  • Define meaningful trauma team and rehabilitation criteria for collection within the Major Trauma Audit (MTA) for adults and paediatric patients.

  • The HSE’s National Healthy Childhood Programme will: Use the information about mechanisms and location of injuries from the MTA 2014-2019 Paediatric Major Trauma Audit Report to inform the development and implementation of the Child Safety Programme.

  • The Road Safety Authority will: Use information about the mechanisms and location of injuries from the Major Trauma Audit Paediatric Report 2014–2019 to inform injury prevention strategies for children.

  • Hospital MTA governance committees should complete the National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA) hospital governance committee survey and continue to meet quarterly to discuss the MTA findings. Actions should be taken to improve services where deficits are identified.

  • NOCA will continue to support hospitals to attain high levels of data coverage and quality until at least 2022, as they recover from COVID-19.

  • NOCA will conduct a survey of hospital MTA governance committees to determine what supports are required within the system to support hospitals to utilise the audit data for improvement.

  • NOCA will develop meaningful quarterly dashboard reports of key performance indicators for the hospitals and Hospital Groups.

  • NOCA will implement processes for the introduction of long-term outcome measures in the MTA.

  • NOCA will develop a research group for the MTA, including Public and Patient Interest (PPI) representatives.

  • NOCA will increase engagement with PPI representatives to:
    - develop resources to raise public awareness of preventable causes of major trauma
    - create information resources for patients
    - create opportunities for multistakeholder engagement around key issues faced by patients.