Government urged to cut child accident rates

8 Feb 07
Government health watchdogs have criticised the 'disgraceful' lack of co-ordinated effort in reducing the number of children who have to be taken to hospital following preventable injury.

09 February 2007

Government health watchdogs have criticised the 'disgraceful' lack of co-ordinated effort in reducing the number of children who have to be taken to hospital following preventable injury.

Two million children are taken to accident and emergency departments each year suffering 'unintended injuries', such as burns, road-traffic accidents and poisoning, the Audit Commission and Healthcare Commission found in their joint report Better safe than sorry, published on February 8.

Of these, 120,000 are admitted for further hospital treatment and 230 die, but that figure is not definitive because central data collection ended in 2003.

Audit Commission chair Michael O'Higgins said: 'We know we cannot stop all [of the accidents], but we can reduce the number.'

In 2001 an Accident Task Force was established to identify the scale of injury in England and Wales and promote prevention. But the watchdogs found the taskforce's guidance had been widely ignored, and that no government priority or dedicated funds had been given to the issue since then.

'We have identified an unmet need which frankly is a disgrace,' said Professor Sir Ian Kennedy, chair of the Healthcare Commission.

The report noted that children in the poorest social class suffered most. They were 15 times more likely to die from an accident than children in the richest social class.

That was often because parents could not afford simple safety devices such as smoke detectors, something the best local authorities and primary care trusts sought to address.

PFfeb2007

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