Critically ill children are being turned away from hospital because of bed shortages âyear after yearâ in NHS critical care units, The Independent can open.
Hospitals in the Midlands, North West and London are struggling to meet demand even in the middle of spring â a time that is usually less busy than in winter â as they face an unexpected wave of illness.
Doctors were even forced to send seriously ill children miles away for intensive care and hospitals canceled vital operations, leaked documents and reports to The Independent open.
Labor has accused the Conservative government of âneglectâ which has helped push critical care for babies to crisis point.
The internal warning from health officials comes after nine-month-old Iona Grace Buckingham died in December 2022 from Strep A and could not be admitted to a critical care bed because none were available.
Iona died at Northampton General Hospital after developing Bronchiolitis and Strep A infection in December 2022. She was admitted on 28 November 2022, and died six days later, before being transferred to a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) bed.
An investigation by the hospital after his death when doctors at the NGH asked him to be transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit, there were no beds available in Leicester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, or Cambridge.
The âfearâ of parents
A team of local specialists who carried out the transfer from the district general hospital to the PICU also did not reach Iona until four hours after the request from Northampton General Hospital was made because they were dealing with two other patients.
A coroner was later concerned about the fact that the blockage in Ionaâs lungs had first been missed and was not taken up until she was critically ill because of the belief that the only pediatric radiologist worked from 9-5 pm Monday to Saturday.
Father Iona Christopher Buckingham told Independent: âI remember at that time, on the evening of Sunday 4 December 2022, how terrible it was to be told that Iona had to be transferred to the PICU and that it had to be done by a specialist team, but now there were no beds and the team would not be able to reach the hospital for a few hours.
Dr Imogen Staveley, interim chief medical officer at Northamptonshire ICB and Hemant Nemade, medical director at Northampton General Hospital said the trust was saddened by Ionaâs death and following the inquest it was reviewing the coronerâs recommendations and response.
One in five children refused intensive care in the last three months of 2022, according to the data obtained The Independent.
One leaked national NHS report shows across all services in England just 15 new pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) beds will be opened between 2020 and 2023, despite rising demand.
React The Independent findings, Labourâs shadow health and social care secretary Wes Streeting said: âRishi Sunak claims the NHS has turned a corner, when children in need of critical care are turned away from hospital. 14 years of Conservative neglect means the NHS cannot be there for sick children if needed.
Dr Ronny Cheung, health services officer for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, warned intensive care units for children and babies across the country were more than 90 per cent full even in May.
He told me The Independent: âThere continues to be a shortage of pediatric critical care beds, which is not seen only in winter pressure but now happens all year round.â
â(Spring and Summer) should be the time when you will have a break âŠBut the reality is that we canât accommodate them and so the cases are canceled due to the lack of intensive care capacity.â
One senior doctor, speaking anonymously, said the current pressure on childrenâs intensive care was the worst he had ever seen.
He said, âthe impact on staff and the morale distress was enormous and many staff leftâ.
Additional data were analyzed by The Independent found NHS hospitals unable to meet increasing demand, with almost 1 in 5 over capacity in critical care units by the last quarter of 2022.
Acutely unhealthy
Not every NHS hospital has a pediatric intensive care unit. They are grouped into 21 hospitals with specialist skills, in 19 NHS trusts, and sick babies and children who need a bed are transferred there.
There are 299 âlevel threeâ beds in the NHS, which are for the sickest, and 171 âlevel twoâ, also known as high dependency units (HDU), which are for less well children.
Leaked emails from April revealed concerns from national NHS leaders and local hospitals with critical care units that Birmingham Womenâs and Childrenâs Hospital was âsurgingâ with acutely ill children, over the number of beds it was funding.
However, the email said there was no clear reason why so many children were still unwell.
Birmingham Womenâs and Childrenâs Hospital FT, which runs the PICU for the region, said admissions were higher than planned for the unit in April, but that demand had since fallen.
During this period, it was not possible to admit nine patients who were sent elsewhere â in the same month last year only two were rejected.
The map above shows which NHS hospitals are hardest hit each quarter, and are often unable to meet the demand for pediatric critical care beds, which can mean children are unable to receive the critical care they need.
Figures show more children are rejected from intensive critical care, an average of 12.7 percent of patients in 2022.
Hospitals are often over capacity â but hardly any new beds are being added
Despite hospital overcrowding, the NHS added just 15 critical care beds across the country in the past three years (2020-23), according to a leaked report, with some hospitals having fewer beds than before.
The clinic has warned of a shortage of HDU (L2) beds, which are for children who are less healthy but still need intensive care, which means they cannot move children out of the PICU, causing a backlog in treatment.
Recommendations in April 2023 suggest that all hospitals should have a minimum of 1 HDU bed for every 2 PICU beds, but many hospitals have failed to meet this target.
An NHS spokesperson said: âWhen there is demand for these services, the NHS has tried and tested surge plans, which include working together between hospitals and specialist pediatric units to ensure services can provide the highest quality care for all children.â
The government was approached for comment.