One in three children’s wards close due to lack of doctors
- Recent report reveals the shocking statistics in the year ending September 2015
- Four in ten special care baby units are also shutting every year due to manpower
- Paediatric and baby wards have 14 per cent of vacancies unfilled, on average
Daily Mail Reporter
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Specialist children’s wards are being forced to shut because of a severe shortage of doctors, a report reveals.
One in three paediatric units had to temporarily close over a lack of staff in the year to September 2015.
Four in ten special care baby units are also shutting their doors every year because of manpower issues, according to a report by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH).
Specialist children’s wards are being forced to shut because of a severe shortage of doctors, a report reveals. Stock image
General paediatric and neonatal wards were coping with an average vacancy rate of 14 per cent – despite hospital admissions among children increasing by a quarter between 2014 and last year.
The report said at least 752 more consultants were needed to meet staffing recommendations set down by the RCPCH.
The College has previously warned that NHS services for children were struggling to cope partly due to female doctors going on maternity leave and working part-time.
Women represent 52 per cent of the consultant and 74 per cent of the trainee paediatric workforce.
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The report also blames a lack of qualified doctors and nurses in special care baby units which is leading to ‘dangerous pressures’ in already overstretched wards.
The units are coming under growing pressure because the birth rate is rising and there are more twin and triplet pregnancies, due to IVF. But the number of specialist ‘paediatric’ doctors and nurses has not kept pace and newborns are being put at risk.
The Royal College also points out that hospital children’s departments as a whole are heavily reliant on overseas staff.
Some 40 per cent of paediatricians gained their qualifications abroad. This could pose a problem if those European doctors decide to leave as they feel unwelcome because of Brexit, the College warns. Professor Neena Modi, president of the RCPCH, said: ‘The facts speak for themselves – the situation is serious.
One in three paediatric units had to temporarily close over a lack of staff in the year to September 2015. Stock image
‘There simply aren’t enough doctors to meet the needs of infants, children and young people, and advance their healthcare through clinical research.
‘It’s a credit to the existing workforce that they are – just – managing to continue to deliver the care children need. This is a dangerously under resourced service, yet the means to redress the situation exist.
‘It is legitimate for us, and the UK public, to ask why, when solutions exist, the health and wellbeing of children are being placed in jeopardy? There is great uncertainty following the Brexit vote around the immigration status and terms and conditions of employment for non-UK nationals working in the NHS.’
Figures from the report show that 41 per cent of neonatal units temporarily closed their doors in the 12 months to September 2015 because they were understaffed.
Babies would have been transferred by ambulance to receive care elsewhere.
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