Reducing general anaesthetic episodes: 'piggyback' procedures - Birmingham Children's Hospital experience

Introduction Birmingham Children's Hospital (BCH) has a well-established care pathway for joint procedures - 'piggybacks' - under general anaesthetic (GA). The premise behind these joint procedures is that dental treatment is undertaken at the same time as another planned GA, usually completed by the patient's primary medical or surgical specialty, or another speciality attending a dental GA list.Aim The aim of this paper is to share the recent BCH experience of joint procedures and provide a model for secondary and tertiary care providers across the UK to develop their own collaborative working approaches.Method Data were collected retrospectively from May 2021 to May 2023 on the department of paediatric dentistry at Birmingham Children's Hospital. Patients were included if they had any joint procedure undertaken.Results In total, 93 patients were treated as a 'piggyback' procedure during this period. The average age of patient treated was nine years and three months. A total of 39 patients had extractions only during this period, while 19 had scaling only and 12 had both scaling and extractions. Additionally, 269 primary teeth and 22 permanent teeth were extracted during this period.Conclusion BCH has a well-established pathway of care for 'piggyback' procedures. Future workforce planning and patient care pathways should consider joint procedures and further explore this initiative to continue to streamline patient care and reduce waiting lists and risks associated with GA.