Dozens of children’s wards face closure, says RCP

19 March 2010

BUDGET cuts and the impact of the 48-hour working week mean some children’s in-patient wards will have to close, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has said.

RCPCH president Professor Terence Stephenson said the £20billion efficiency savings planned for the NHS, together with the effects of the European Working Time Directive will push the workforce to the limits.

He said there was already a shortfall of around 600 consultant paediatricians and 200 top-level trainees before the EWTD was brought in last August. And he told the Daily Telegraph that the workforce was now under “unsustainable pressure”.

Restrictions on the number of hours junior doctors can work, because of the EWTD, make it even more difficult to maintain staffing levels in the wards at all times, Professor Stephenson said. He was also reported as saying there are too many small hospitals providing in-patient children’s services and that some of these should close so that doctors can staff the rest round the clock.

He said the problem was compounded by the fact that the Department of Health cut the number of hospital specialty trainees by five per cent this year in a bid to steer them towards GP training.

The RCPCH’s viewpoint will be at odds with many patients’ groups who often campaign against hospital service closures. A spokesman for the Department of Health responded to the professor’s comments by quoting the results of a RCPCH survey last year which showed more than 100 extra paediatric consultant posts were created in a bid to tackle EWTD staffing issues, adding: "Changes should only happen when they deliver quality improvements for patients."