Hospitals see surge in sick children

IMMIGRATION is contributing to soaring numbers of admissions to children’s intensive care wards, a study suggests.

Numbers of very ill children admitted to NHS paediatric intensive care units rose 15 per cent between 2004 and 2013, with a particularly sharp rise after 2009.

Roughly 500 more youngsters were admitted in 2013 than in 2004, which experts say is enough to cause problems in already busy hospitals.

Researchers from Bristol Royal Hospital for Children say the rise is not being driven by increasing population levels. But, according to their study, published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, they do think migrants from Eastern Europe are contributing to the spike.

This is because their Roman Catholic faith means they are unwilling to terminate pregnancies even if their baby will be born very sick.

As a result, doctors are seeing more desperately ill children than they used to. Researcher Dr Peter Davis, of Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, said medical advances are also contributing to the rise, as more children are surviving.

‘In many ways it is a good news story,’ he said. ‘We treat things now that we didn’t 15 years ago. Some parents might not go ahead with pregnancies if they learn about problems early.

‘But those with particular religious beliefs - such as Roman Catholic Eastern Europeans – might not choose termination.’