Intensive care units for children not meeting standards, says NHSE report

Three intensive care units for children are not meeting standards for co-located services, a national report has found.

Royal Stoke University Hospital, Royal Brompton Hospital in London and Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, which all have “level three” paediatric intensive care beds for the most seriously ill patients, do not offer specialised paediatric surgery, according to a report from NHS England’s Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) programme.

The report, released in April, said specialised paediatric surgery “should be co-located on the same site” as a paediatric intensive care unit with level three beds and be “immediately available” to meet quality standards set by the Paediatric Intensive Care Society.

The report also found the units do not offer services such as trauma, neurosurgery and bone marrow transplantation, which it says is a reflection of the variability and “the poor alignment” of specialised paediatric services at PICUs.

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Source: HSJ, 23 May 2022