Patient safety

Increasing child emergency admissions raises community care concerns

The number of babies and young children admitted to hospital in an emergency has risen by almost a third over the last decade, a report released today has revealed.

It was also found that many of these children were being treated for conditions such as asthma and tonsillitis, illnesses that could have been treated out of hospital with better care and support offered in the community.

Written by think tank the Nuffield Trust in collaboration with the Health Foundation, the ‘Focus on: Emergency hospital care for children and young people’ research explored how children and young people had been accessing emergency care over the past decade.

Emergency hospital admissions for under 25s has grown by 14% over this time, but the youngest children saw a disproportionate rise in emergency admissions, with 30% more babies being admitted to hospital from 2007 to 2017.

Though researchers were reluctant to give an exact reason behind the rise – as the issue is complex and required more research – they did comment that the findings raised questions about the quality of maternity and community services.

Lucia Kossarova, senior research analyst at the Nuffield Trust, said that as the NHS emerged from its toughest winter yet, much of the focus has been on how hospitals had been coping with the rising number of older people needing urgent emergency care.

“But this research reveals that many of the youngest members of society use emergency care in large and increasing numbers,” she added.

“While hospital is usually the right place for children and young people with serious urgent care needs, our study suggests that a proportion of these admissions could have been prevented by improving access to high-quality paediatric or child healthcare closer to people’s homes.

“There are many new initiatives around the country that provide possible solutions for how hospital emergency admissions for children and young people could be reduced.”

And her colleague Eilís Keeble, lead author and research analyst at the Nuffield Trust, stated: “Children and young people are frequent users of emergency services. While not all emergency hospital admissions can be prevented, our research found that, despite some improvements, many children are still treated in an emergency setting for chronic conditions such as asthma.

“This study provides a useful insight into areas where demand for hospital services could be reduced if more appropriate care and support is provided to children and young people early on.”

The news also comes on the same day that a report warned that continued closures to hospitals in STP areas could lead to A&E departments reaching ‘danger point’ and unable to cope with high demand.

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