UK perinatal centres often cannot meet demand

Much of the recent debate about the adequacy of the NHS has focused on the high volume specialties such as cardiac services and those, like routine surgery, that can be monitored via waiting lists. Within the relevant professional groups, however, there has been much concern that a shortage of neonatal intensive care beds was causing major problems for perinatal services. To quantify the situation Parmanum et al (p 727) performed a three month census among the biggest perinatal units in the United Kingdom, focusing on how often they cannot cope with their in house demand. The census confirms that difficulties in finding a suitable cot are common. There are no national standards for this service in terms of what the public can expect but if patients with possible cancer can expect to be seen by a specialist within three weeks perhaps families whose baby needs neonatal intensive care should not expect to travel 100 miles for a cot?

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Relevant Article

National census of availability of neonatal intensive care

Jill Parmanum, David Field, Janet Rennie, and Philip Steer
BMJ 2000 321: 727-729. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]