Action demanded on children's accident and emergency care

11.47.23am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 16th Dec 2005

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland has written to the health Improvement Committee asking them to investigate the poor facilities for children attending accident and emergency at the Bradford Royal Infirmary.

She said,

" The BRI has special facilities for children attending Accident and Emergency but these are closed and there appears to be no prospect of them opening. There has been pressure put on the BRI from as far back as 2003 but no progress.

The city has a higher than average number of children . It is very distressing if your child is ill and requires emergency treatment. Surely it cannot be right to add to the distress of children and their families through inadequate facilities.

Nationally, up to half of babies and a quarter of older children will attend A&E and about 25% of A&E attendances are children. In Bradford, these number will be higher.

It seems to me that this is an issue that should be investigated by the Health Scrutiny Committee especially as the National Service Framework Standards may not be being met. I want the committee to investigate the quality of the service provided to the children and parents of sick and injured children who are attending the Accident and Emergency Service at the BRI."