Centralisation of a hypospadias repair service--the Warwickshire experience

An audit of the hypospadias repair service provided in the county of Warwickshire has shown that centralising all referrals to a single surgeon who uses limited, well-practiced techniques, greatly improves outcome. Comparison to previous audit of the service, when provided by a number of surgeons in the region, shows complication rates dropping - fistulae occurrence reducing from 35.8% to 6.7% and urethral stricture rates showing similar improvement from 4.4% to 0%. Overall productivity increased, and referral out of region dropped from 13% to 0%. This provides definitive evidence that restructuring of a service already in place has decreased morbidity and increased efficiency to give results comparable to published data.