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 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” which has helped push critical care for infants to crisis point. The internal warnings from health officials come after nine-month-old Iona Grace Buckingham died in December 2022 from Strep A and could not be admitted to a critical care bed because none were available. Iona died at Northampton General Hospital after developing Bronchiolitis and Strep A infection in December 2022.
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 when doctors at NGH requested she be transferred to a paediatric intensive care unit there were no beds available in Leicester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, or Cambridge. The local specialist team which carries out transfers from district general hospital.
