Paediatric Intensive Care Audit Network State of the Nation Report 2022 (March 2023)

Summary

Based on data from January 2019 to December 2021, this report by the Paediatric Intensive Care Audit Network (PICANet) catalogues comprehensive information on referral, transport and admission events. This enables the monitoring of delivery and quality of care in relation to agreed standards, and the evaluation of clinical outcomes to inform national policy in paediatric critical care. It reports on five key metrics relevant to Paediatric Intensive Care services:

1. case ascertainment including timeliness of data submission
2. retrieval mobilisation times
3. emergency readmissions within 48 hours of discharge
4. unplanned extubation in PICU
5. mortality in PICU

Content

Key messages

• The number of admissions to paediatric intensive care across the UK and Republic of Ireland (ROI) increased by 11% from 16,540 in 2020 (following the start of the Covid-19 pandemic) to 18,320 in 2021.
• Two-thirds of admissions to PICUs occurred in those aged under 5 years, with just over two in five admissions aged under 1 year.
• The proportion of admissions which were of ‘Asian’, ‘Black’ or ‘Other’ ethnic minority origin increased from 17% to 25% between 2019 and 2021 with the proportion classified as ‘White’ also increasing from 62% to 63% over this period.
• The report also contains a number of national recommendations as well as resources to support improvement.