Developing community pediatric care

Canada is geographically a large area, where historically, subspecialty care, especially pediatric urology, has been relegated to tertiary centres. Pediatric urology is unique, as the vast majority of cases are performed on otherwise healthy children with low acuity diagnoses that can be cared for electively as day cases. Hence, bread-and-butter cases being sent to high-powered tertiary centres is not only a wasteful practice with respect to costs, but clearly not patient-centred. If such care is to be developed in the community, following guidelines, best practices, and assuring optimal age of surgery to maintain quality and safety are essential