Half of the district general hospitals in England are unable to provide emergency general paediatric surgery, warns a survey published on 16 December by the Royal College of Surgeons’ children’s surgical forum.

The survey investigated the provision of general paediatric surgery in district general hospitals in England by analysing data from NHS hospital episode statistics for children and teenagers up to the age of 18-19 years undergoing surgical treatment in 2008-9. General paediatric surgery is the surgical management of relatively common, non-specialised conditions in general surgery and urology, such as herniotomy and appendicectomy, in children who don’t need complex perioperative care.

Hospitals that were providing general paediatric surgery were then sent a questionnaire to gather further information …