Royal College of Emergency Medicine
HSIB recommends that the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, working with relevant stakeholders, develops guidance to support clinicians in the diagnosis and management of non-accidental injuries.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) is happy to accept safety recommendation R/2023/227 and is committed to produce a useful guidance for Emergency Medicine clinicians to help with the diagnosis and management of non-accidental injuries.
In order to develop the guideline, the RCEM will form a writing group consisting of clinicians with Paediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) sub-specialty, doctors in training and Emergency Medicine Consultants without PEM sub-specialty, the latter being of particular importance to make sure that the guideline is useful to those without PEM sub-specialty that have paediatric patients presenting to their Emergency Department (ED).
The guideline will have useful and pragmatic clinical advice for all ED clinicians, aimed highlighting key factors to help identify non-accidental injuries in infants. The RCEM also acknowledges the importance of having the involvement of other services to ensure the best outcome and management of this group of patients and, will endeavour to have this reflected on the guideline. This will help not only to clarify the interface between the ED and key services but, to stress the importance of having a well-structured work relationship with them.
Actions planned to deliver safety recommendation:
- First guideline draft to be internally by the RCEM by 30 June 2023.
- Recruitment and formation of the writing group by 1 August 2023.
- Guidance written and published by the writing group by 31 January 2024.
Response received on 9 May 2023.
NHS England
HSIB recommends that NHS England, working with relevant stakeholders, reviews the utility of the safeguarding data in the Emergency Care Data Set and agrees a process for assuring the quality of any data to be captured.