Objectives-To improve the time taken for children arriving to the accident
and emergency (A&E) department in pain to receive analgesia. Delivery withi
n 30 minutes of triage was taken as an achievable goal.
Methods-262 children who had received analgesia in the "minor injuries" are
a of West Middlesex University Hospital A&E department were studied over a
four month period. Current practice was indicated over the first two months
by retrospectively looking at data from 129 children's A&E cards. A Paedia
tric Pain Protocol was then introduced and another 133 children's cards stu
died to see if this had made an improvement. The protocol for those childre
n aged over 4 years differed to that for children aged 4 years and under.
Results-For children aged 4 years and over, the introduction of the protoco
l significantly increased the number that received analgesia within 30 minu
tes of triage: 55.3% (n=54) post-protocol versus 34.0% (n=33) pre-protocol
(p=0.003). However, for children aged 4 years and under there was no change
in the proportion that received analgesia within 30 minutes of triage: 56.
7% (n=17) post-protocol versus 59.4% (n=19) pre-protocol (p=0.829).
Conclusions-The introduction of a simple Paediatric Pain Protocol has impro
ved the time taken to deliver analgesia to children arriving in this A&E de
partment.