Authors:

• Dr Samantha Black, RCoA Patient Information Lead
• Dr Lucy Connolly, Clinical Trust Fellow, Medway NHS Foundation Trust
• Elena Fabbrani, RCoA Patient and Public Involvement Manager

Over the past months, the patient information team has been busy creating new resources and collaborating with a wide range of partners to create innovative content to help you meet the challenges of preoperative assessment.

Helping you ‘make every contact count’

A child presenting for surgery provides an excellent occasion for health promotion, with the results of the PErioperAtive CHildhood obesitY (PEACHY) study showing that 24% of children presenting for surgery are overweight or obese. It has never been more important to address the physical health of children at every opportunity, ‘making every contact count’, especially in light of the surgical backlog and our ever-growing waiting lists that we are all too aware of.