Dr Charlotte Harper1,2, Ms Clare Hargan1, Dr Christina Harry1,3
1ScotSTAR Retrieval Service , 2Children’s Emergency Department, Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, 3Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, Royal Hospital for Children
Biography:
Dr Harper is a Paediatric Retrieval Consultant at ScotSTAR in Glasgow and Paediatric Emergency Consultant at Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital in Brighton, UK.
Abstract:
Aim: ScotSTAR is the national paediatric critical care retrieval service for Scotland. This includes remote and rural locations often with limited resources, paediatric and paediatric critical care experience. The purpose of the study is to describe the service’s experience of transporting paediatric critical care patients. This study also aims to highlight the importance of telemedicine advice to assist remote and rural healthcare facilities in Scotland.
Methods: This is a retrospective review of paediatric referrals to ScotSTAR between 2017 and 2024. A total of 2233 patient episodes were analysed using an online database. Data analysed included: number of retrievals, number of advice calls, number of telemedicine video calls via ‘GoodSAM’ platform, transport modality, retrieval distance, number of referrals from different healthcare centres, diagnostic category and type of critical care support (single or multi-organ support).
Results: The mean annual number of paediatric retrievals between 2017 and 2024 was 279. There was annual variation of the mean number of retrievals: prior to the Covid-19 pandemic (2017-2019) 316, during the Covid-19 pandemic (2020 -2022) 261 and post-Covid-19 (2023-2024) 252. The mean monthly number of retrievals was 23. There was seasonal variation: December had the highest mean number of retrievals (35) and July the lowest (17.8). The mean annual number of advice calls per year was 433, which increased from 309 in 2021 to 485 in 2024. Hospitals with the highest mean annual number of referrals were within NHS Grampian (38.2) & NHS Lanarkshire (37.4) and the lowest NHS Orkney (2) and NHS Shetland (2). 31% of retrievals were aeromedical via rotary or fixed-wing and 67% were road transfers.
Conclusion: This study highlights the importance of paediatric critical care retrievals across Scotland; as well as the need for prompt clinical and transport logistic advice via telemedicine for both critical and non-critical patients in remote locations.