A “hidden crisis” is leaving children with life-limiting conditions and disabilities stuck in hospital due to a lack of support in the community, the Children’s Commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza has warned.
Despite being medically fit for discharge, children are spending tens of thousands of unnecessary inpatient days, linked to shortages in children’s social care placements, difficulties securing care packages and inconsistent access to community health services, including home nursing, finds the commissioner’s Children Waiting to Leave Hospital report.
The delays are often exacerbated by funding disputes between health and social care bodies, adds the report.
However, the report highlights how hospitals do not accurately record data and do not know how many days could be saved for other children needing admission.
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More than 260,000 children spent three or more weeks in hospital during their childhoods, including nearly 70,000 who stayed for over two months and around 1,300 children spent more than a year in hospital, finds the report, adding that more than 14,000 children have spent over 10% of their lives in hospital and more than 400 have spent half of their childhood there.
Children from deprived backgrounds and ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected, it finds.
De Souza is calling for urgent cross-government action, including expanded home nursing, improved access to community care, and better coordination between services to ensure children can leave hospital and return to family life as soon as possible.
“For all the debate and attention given to hospitals, waiting times and social care, children are rarely mentioned,” she said.
“Childhood is a short and precious time – so when a child spends months or even years confined to a hospital ward, not because they are too unwell to leave but because the right community support cannot be found, the system has failed.
“As ever, a lack of good data about these children’s lives is partly driving this failure.
“My work shows a hidden crisis, as services do not definitively know how many children are stuck, waiting to be discharged, how long they wait, or how many days’ worth of beds could be saved and offered to children who truly need to be there.”
De Souza’s recommendations also include guaranteed access to children’s palliative and end of life care, ensuring these services are properly funded, as well as improved paid leave for parents of sick children.
Spurce: CYPNow
