Long delays in NHS care causing serious damage to children’s health across UK

Children across the UK are suffering serious damage to their health – including chronic pain, asthma flare-ups, weight loss and developmental problems – because of long delays for NHS care.

Some under-18s are finding it so hard to obtain prompt treatment for their diabetes or epilepsy that they are forced to turn to A&E for care because their health has deteriorated so badly.

Children’s doctors said the findings were “shocking” and warned that some children would endure “lifelong consequences” as a result of delays that could sometimes last several years.

The details have emerged in a dossier of evidence the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) has collated illustrating the harm that treatment unavailability causes.

One paediatrician specialising in neurodevelopmental problems said children who joined the list had to wait six years for their first appointment because the service was unable to meet demand. Another said the average waiting time for an initial consultation was three years and five months.

The anxiety and challenges caused by the delays can be so difficult for children and families to deal with that some parents have even split up as a result of that pressure, because they have reached “breaking point”, the college said. In addition, some families are being forced to pay for private care, in order to circumvent NHS waiting lists.

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Source: The Guardian, 5 August 2024