7 April 2009
The Healthcare Commission (now the
Care Quality Commission) published a report on 13 March 2009, in which they revealed the results of their investigation into the care children get from the NHS.
The report focused on four main areas: child protection, pain management, life support and whether clinicians are sufficiently specialised in treating children.
The Commission found that nurses are not receiving the required training on recognising child abuse and on acting appropriately if they do have concerns. The current Regulations stipulate that training in this must be undertaken every three years. The Commission has now said that it will be talking to the Royal Colleges about increasing the frequency of training from three years to every 12 months.
The Healthcare Commission found that one in five emergency nurses had not received training on providing children with pain relief and that 94% of Trusts failed to provide their staff with sufficient training in basic paediatric resuscitation.
The Commission emphasises that treating children is not simply a matter of treating “mini-adults” highlighting the fact that many conditions children experience are not found in adults. Surgical technique is also very different between children and adults. However, the Commission found that many of the 154 acute trusts’ surgeons did not perform sufficient operations on children to be considered specialists in paediatric surgery.
Information was correct at time of publishing. See terms and conditions for further details.
Information was correct at time of publishing. See terms and conditions for further details.