Earlier this year, the RCPCH's Facing the Future report set out proposals to cut the number of children's inpatient units from 218 to about 170. It warned that children's inpatient services are unsustainable, with trainee doctors frequently left to manage wards due to a shortage in senior-level consultant posts.
Health charity The Kings Fund is now backing RCPCH's call for a radical reconfiguration of hospital services. It argues that changes are "urgently required" to improve patient care "within tight financial and workforce constraints".
Dr David Shortland, vice president of RCPCH, told CYP Now that "most units in the country" should be reviewing their provision. He admitted that plans to close children's inpatient units are highly contentious at a local level, but insisted that having fewer, larger centres will lead to better care for children.
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