Sharp rise in children taken to A&E with common illnesses

There has been a surge in the number of children taken to accident and emergency departments with common illnesses in the past decade, a study suggests.

In this time, the role of the family doctor has changed. GPs are no longer responsible for providing care at nights and weekends for common illnesses; this is generally contracted out to large private companies instead.

However, many concerned parents now appear to be side-stepping this route, and take their child directly to A&E.

In the study, researchers at Nottingham Children's Hospital and the University of Nottingham Medical School analysed the medical records of children aged 15 and under who had attended the A&E at Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham in 2007/2008. These were then compared with those from 10 years earlier.

During the 10 years, the number of children who attended A&E had remained similar, but the number attending with a common illness increased by 42 per cent, the study found.

Some 14,724 children had common medical conditions in 2007/8, compared 10,369 children in 1997.

Ten common medical illnesses accounted for 85 per cent of visits, including breathing difficulties, fever, diarrhoea with or without vomiting, rash and cough.

The proportion of patients attending for each of these conditions were similar in 1997 and 2007-8, except for breathing difficulties.

“Over a 10-year period, attendances to the paediatric emergency department have remained similar; however, there has been a disproportionate rise in the number attending with medical conditions," the authors wrote in the Emergency Medicine Journal.

"The presenting problems also remain similar, although there has been a significant reduction in those presenting with difficulty in breathing.

“Care pathways focussing on this limited range of high-volume presenting problems will make the maximum impact on improving quality and value of care for children,” they added.

This article was published on Tue 24 May 2011