Critically ill children are being rushed from one part of England to another because NHS hospitals are running short of intensive care beds in which to treat them, the Guardian can reveal. One doctor at a PICU in the Midlands said: “PICU beds are always in high demand. Dr Peter-Marc Fortune, the president of the Paediatric Intensive Care Society, confirmed that early winter circulation of bugs was leading to children being transferred. In an unusual move, the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (FICM) raised concerns about the accuracy of official NHS “sitreps” data. The figures, published weekly by NHS England during winter, detail bed occupancy across the country in intensive care units for adults, paediatric intensive care units for children and neonatal intensive care units for newborns.

Source: The Guardian December 29, 2019 19:52 UTC