Editorials

Providing intensive care

The recent deaths of two severely ill patients being transferred from one hospital to another in search of specialised intensive care have caused public alarm in Britain and have raised questions about the resourcing and organisation of adult and paediatric intensive care.

The British Paediatric Association has repeatedly pointed to the apparent shortfall in paediatric intensive care beds,^{1 2} but to seemingly little effect. The fact that major paediatric centres often have to refuse admission negates the association's recommendation that sick children be provided with specialist nursing and medical care. Shann points out that twice as many children per head of population are admitted to intensive care in Australia and the United States as in Britain.³ Small units with low admission rates and often without a full time intensive care specialist lead to a fragmented service, with detrimental . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Providing intensive care

D F Bowden and D P Burke
BMJ 1996 312: 1476. [Extract] [Full Text]

Service can't cope with troughs in demand, let alone peaks

Roop Kishen
BMJ 1996 312: 1476. [Extract] [Full Text]

Centralised paediatric intensive care beds are blocked

Ian James
BMJ 1996 312: 1476. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Coomber, S., Todd, C., Park, G., Baxter, P., Firth-Cozens, J., Shore, S. (2002). Stress in UK intensive care unit doctors. Br J Anaesth 89: 873-881 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Daly, K., Beale, R, Chang, R W S (2001). Reduction in mortality after inappropriate early discharge from intensive care unit: logistic regression triage model. BMJ 322: 1274-1274 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Frith, L. (2001). Gamete donation and anonymity: The ethical and legal debate. Hum Reprod 16: 818-824 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Gorard, D., Walshe, K., Wood, J., Smith, A., Youngs, P. J, Ringrose, T., Garrard, C., McAllister, C, McGovern, S J, Duncan, P. W, Nightingale, P., Macartney, I., Ryan, J., Shelly, M. P, Pritchard, C., Anderson, I. D, Rowlands, B. J, Mercer, M., Fletcher, S. J, Bishop, G. F, McQuillan, P., Pilkington, S., Allan, A., Taylor, B., Smith, G., Nielson, M., Short, A., Morgan, G., Collins, C. (1999). Suboptimal ward care of critically ill patients. BMJ 318: 51-51 [Full text]  
• Berry, A., Goldhill, D. R, Withington, P S., Nicholl, J., Ratcliffe, J., Pearson, G., Shann, F (1998). Provision of intensive care for children. BMJ 317: 1320-1320 [Full text]  
• Finfer, S. (1996). Close observation in intensive care unit is required when naloxone infusion ends. BMJ 313: 1480a-1480 [Full text]  
• Nielsen, M., Sced, A., Pappachan, J. (1996). Providing intensive care. BMJ 312: 1671b-1671 [Full text]  
• Bowden, D F, Burke, D P (1996). Providing intensive care. BMJ 312: 1476-1476 [Full text]  
• Kishen, R. (1996). Service can't cope with troughs in demand, let alone peaks. BMJ 312: 1476a-1476 [Full text]  
• James, I. (1996). Centralised paediatric intensive care beds are blocked. BMJ 312: 1476b-1476 [Full text]