Medical colleges call for improvements to unscheduled care for children

A new report from the medical industry has outlined a new set of standards to improve unscheduled care for children.

Produced by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Royal College of Nursing and Royal College of GPs, the report notes that children account for more than one-quarter of emergency department attendances in the UK.

Moreover, in England alone there has been a 28 percent increase in admissions for children to hospital over the last decade, with many of these being unnecessary and a simple consequence of parents not knowing where else to turn.

As such, the new proposed standards call for every child to be given timely access to high-quality unscheduled care services, and for efforts to be made to avoid children being treated in hospital when an equivalent or better standard of care could be provided in another setting.

Care providers have been called upon to band together to form a geographical network that is responsive to the needs of local children and their parents and carers.

Dr Hilary Cass, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: "We need to help patients navigate the options available to them and to get the most appropriate care – but also make sure that those services … are fully skilled and best equipped to provide the best possible care."