Wednesday 28 February 2007

Children's hospitals in England are in need of Intensive Care


A reader of this blog has pointed out the following story:

Child Care 'Unacceptable'

Child care in hospitals across England has been described as "unacceptable" by a health watchdog.
A Healthcare Commission study found 75% of hospitals only scored fair or weak for their overall service for youngsters.
Nearly one in five failed to provide sufficient life support care for children at night.
And the study also found surgeons in 8% of hospital trusts did not operate on enough children to keep their skill level up.
Researchers claimed many hospitals were not giving youngsters the correct pain relief they need for fear of giving them an overdose.
The commission praised the work of the majority of paediatric inpatient departments, with 70% ranked either good or excellent, but said the overall service was less impressive.

Sadly what I realised when I read the above was that I wasn't shocked. News like this is getting more commonplace. 20 years ago people would have been outraged, now I think we have become desensitised to the state of the country's public services.

You can read the full story HERE

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