Children helping research study that aims to improve future NHS care
Children who have to go to local Emergency Departments are helping a research study that aims to improve future NHS care.
The guidance being developed is called PAT-POPS – The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust Paediatric Observation Priority Score – and follows on from the original POPS score, devised by Dr Damian Roland, Chief Investigator for the study at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust and Honorary Associate Professor in Paediatric Emergency Medicine at the University of Leicester. The current study is designed to refine the score so it will be better able to predict outcomes.
The study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is thought to be the largest yet in Greater Manchester and could eventually involve as many as 20,000 children and young people aged 0-16 years old. It is collecting information on routine observations, such as heart rate, temperature and breathing rate, to help experts develop guidelines to advise clinicians which children should be admitted to hospital and which could be discharged home or signposted to a different service.
Nurses in the department collect these routine observations when they are triaging patients and children won’t have to give any extra samples or have any extra tests or procedures.
The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has been awarded more than £300,000 by the NIHR to carry out the study.
The PAT-POPS research group is a partnership between the Universities of Salford, Manchester, and Leicester together with The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.