I have been privileged to be the Clinical Lead for the Surgery in Children ODN, as a whole, as well as chair the General Surgery and Urology working group, since 2018, when the STPN first began. The children’s general surgery of childhood ODN was created to ensure that every child could receive prompt appropriate access to care, as close to home as possible. Initially the focus was to develop strong clinical links between the different hospitals and minimise transfers. During the Covid pandemic, the ODN enabled children’s surgical lists to restart, and reduce the waiting list backlogs.

As the group has developed, it has created cultural change within units so that children’s care is now a priority. The working group has written numerous regional and national guidelines, created face to face training for staff, researched methods to reduce health inequalities, improved pain management and enabled data sharing (to list just a few of their achievements), which has improved the care of children in the region and across the country.

I am immensely grateful to the working group, who are a diverse and hard-working committee who dedicate a huge amount of time and effort to enhancing the care of children undergoing surgery.  In 2026-27 the group will focus on improving the pathways for children with complex needs undergoing surgery, improve analgesia for all children and continue to strive to provide the best care in Europe for children by 2030.

Feilim Murphy