The STPN SiC Network is responsible for implementing the recommendations from the GIRFT national reports and to report outcomes both to the ICSs covered by the Network (South East London, South West London, Surrey, Sussex and Kent) and nationally.

Recommendation 5 of the GIRFT Paediatric Surgery report is about improving the way we decide which children require surgery for common conditions.

Across conditions, children are undergoing unnecessary surgery – across the country up to 4,000 boys annually undergo unnecessary circumcision as a result of a lack of evidence base and training in alternative treatments. We see a similar situation in both hydrocele and umbilical herniotomy, where conditions usually resolve over time.

GIRFT recommends that trusts and Operational Delivery Networks continually review and improve surgical decision making. To do this each Trust is required to fill in a form every time one of the following procedures is performed.