RCPCH contributes to urgent and emergency care report

The report, Right Place, Right Care: Learning the Lessons from the UK Crisis in Urgent and Emergency Care in 2022, was published by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) provides cases studies and analysis of last year’s crisis in Emergency Care.

It was compiled by RCEM and includes contributions from 16 other leading health care organisations including Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. The report includes an analysis on the situation in children's urgent and emergency care and includes recommendations to government including the needs to increase vaccine coverage for RSV and addressing mental health needs. 

RCPCH President, Dr Camilla Kingdon, said:

Child health is in a crisis, and we can see it first hand in our paediatric emergency care. Health professionals are seeing a significant increase in footfall, long waiting times, non-urgent attendances, difficulties in accessing primary care, and a concerning rise in acute mental health cases.

Last winter was one of the toughest on record for paediatrics, and with little progress having been made this year it is easy to feel discouraged. But there are clear policy solutions to this problem. The joint recommendations within this report are both comprehensive and achievable. We urge politicians and policy makers to act now in order to safeguard our children and our NHS.