Improving services for children in hospital
On 13 March 2009, the Healthcare Commission published a report (Improving services for children in hospital) which reveals that NHS hospitals are making mixed progress in ensuring staff are properly trained and possess the specialist skills necessary to provide good quality care for children.
The report details the progress made by 154 NHS acute trusts since the Healthcare Commission last reviewed such services in 2005/06.
The 2005/06 review indicated that services were generally good when children were inpatients in specialist paediatric services. However, it identified a need for significant improvement in the care of children being treated in other settings.
The current report focuses on emergency and day case settings, looking at those areas previously identified by the Health Commission as of particular concern. It finds that although some trusts have improved, overall progress has been mixed.
Key findings show that:
- While more trusts now meet basic guidelines for training staff at least every three years in child protection, there remains significant room for improvement. In one in five trusts, the training of nurses does not meet guidelines and 42% of trusts failed to update consultant surgeons every three years.
- More trusts are now meeting guidelines to train nursing staff to in order assess children's pain and administer pain relief, though appreciable improvement is still required. The report observes that almost two-thirds of trusts did not train enough nurses in day case settings to administer pain relief to children.
- Trusts have made very limited progress in training staff to provide life support to children. For instance, 94% of trusts are still failing to provide sufficient training in basic resuscitation and emergency life support to surgeons.
- A high proportion of surgeons and anaesthetists carrying out procedures on children may have insufficient experience of the specific needs of young children. For instance, 74% of trusts performed poorly or had deteriorated when measured against recommendations to maintain the skills of anaesthetists.
Improving services for children in hospital - report of the follow-up to the 2005/06 review
