The BSPED’s national Peer Review programme was initiated in 2011 and the first round of review was completed in 2017 for all 22 tertiary centres in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Following a revision of the UK Standards for Paediatric Endocrinology and endorsement by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the second round of BSPED peer review started in July 2019.
The BSPED is now running a Virtual Peer Review process, which started with reviews of several centres successfully taking place during 2021 and 2022.
The following UK centres have an up to date peer review or a planned review in 2024
- Birmingham, June 2022
- Leeds, January 2024
- Leicester, January 2024
- London Evelina Children’s Hospital, June 2020
- London Gt Ormond Street, Nov 2021
- London: St George's Hospital, June 2021
- Manchester, June 2021
- Nottingham, July 2019
- Oxford, Feb 2021
- Southampton, Nov 2022
- Cardiff, December 2023
- Edinburgh: Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Apr 2024
- Belfast: Musgrave Park Hospital, March 2021
There are now at least 10 UK centres overdue for a peer review! Please get in touch to let us know who would be the best person to contact in your centre.
We are also looking for individuals who would help with the review process, which includes DGH paediatricians and nurses. If you would also like to observe the review process, in preparation of your own centre’s review, please let us know.
Further details of the review process and what it entails can be provided.
Please do get in touch with Peer Review Officer Dr Guftar Shaikh on Guftar.Shaikh@ggc.scot.nhs.uk
For those who would like to know how the BSPED has established an international benchmark in ensuring the quality of paediatric endocrinology services through peer review, please read the recent publication in Hormone Research: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33789302/
The peer-review is a formative assessment of the following domains of paediatric endocrine care:
- Access to specialised paediatric endocrine services
- Resources of specialised paediatric endocrine services
- Environment and facilities, care of the child and family/patient experience
- Communication
- Clinical governance, professional education, training and evidence base
The new peer review is based on the previous format i.e. a Self-Assessment questionnaire and a Centre review with objective references to the 2019 standards.
The following documents and forms are available to help paediatric endocrine centres in the peer review process and can be requested by contacting the BSPED office (bsped@endocrinology.org):
- A BSPED Peer Review Centre Guidance Document
- A voice-over PowerPoint training guide for Peer Reviewers
- BSPED peer review form - for conducting the peer review
- A sample timetable.
For any queries regarding the peer review process, please contact Dr Guftar Shaikh, BSPED Audit and Peer Review Officer.