ABSTRACT
Background. Obtaining care for an acutely ill child in specialised paediatric services relies on referral from lower-level facilities. In South Africa; it is common practice for acutely ill children to be transported far distances by non-specialist teams with limited equipment; knowledge and skills. Objectives. To describe the transfer of these children and to determine whether they deteriorate from the time of referral to the time of arrival at a tertiary centre. Furthermore; we sought to identify modifiable factors that might improve outcomes during resuscitation and transfer. Methods. The study was a retrospective review of emergency referrals of children aged 1 month - 12 years to Grey's Hospital paediatric ward or paediatric intensive care unit (PICU); from lower-level facilities in KwaZulu-Natal between January and June 2012. In conjunction with an assessment by the receiving clinician at Grey's Hospital; Triage Early Warning Signs (TEWS) scores were obtained during telephonic referral and compared with the TEWS score on arrival in order to determine if a deterioration had occurred.Results. A total of 57 PICU referrals and 79 ward referrals were analysed. The mortality rate prior to transportation was 8.8%. Mean transfer distance was 131 km and mean transfer time 9 hours. Advanced life support teams undertook transportation in 76.7% of PICU and 25% of ward transfers and few adverse events were reported in transfer logs. However; 31.5% of PICU and 11.3% of ward referrals required immediate resuscitation on arrival. When the TEWS scoring system was applied 78.5% of PICU and 30.4% of ward referrals fell into the 'very urgent' and 'emergency' categories. Conclusion. Pretransport and in-transit care failed to stabilise children and this may reflect lack of skill of attending healthcare workers; transport delays or illness progression. Interventions to improve resuscitation and transfer are needed; and the use of retrieval teams should be investigated