NHS bed shortage sees sick children denied critical care

Paediatric ICUs at crisis point as Tories accused of 'neglect'

- REBECCA THOMAS, ALICJA HAGOPIAN

Seriously ill children are being turned away from hospitals because of a “year-round” bed shortage in NHS critical care units, The Independent can reveal. Hospitals in the Midlands, North West and London are struggling to meet demand even in the middle of spring – a time when services are normally less busy than in winter months – as they face an unexpected wave of sickness.

Doctors are instead being forced to send severely unwell children miles away for intensive care, and hospitals are cancelling vital operations, leaked documents and reports to The

Independent reveal. Labour has accused the Conservative government of “neglect” that has helped to push critical care for infants to crisis point.

The internal warnings from health officials come after ninemonth-old Iona Grace Buckingham died in December 2022 from a Group A Strep infection after she was not able to be admitted to a critical care bed because none were available. Iona was taken to Northampton General Hospital after developing bronchiolitis and a Strep A infection. She was admitted on 28 November 2022, and died six days later before she could be transferred to a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) bed.

An investigation by the hospital following her death revealed that when doctors at Northampton requested she be transferred to a paediatric intensive care unit, there were no beds available in Leicester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, or Cambridge.

‘Terrified’ parents