EXCLUSIVE
A FLAGSHIP Scottish children's hospital has the worst record in Britain for unavailable intensive care beds, with only half in use, according to Government figures.
Each bed costs #250,000 a year to run.
The Government-ordered census of pediatric care units is due to be published later this month. However, preliminary findings from the survey, completed yesterday and obtained by The Herald, show the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow has reported only half its intensive-care beds as open.
Labour health spokesman Henry McLeish has demanded a full inquiry into what he called an ``astonishing'' lack of provision in the wake of the Dunblane shooting, which saw three of the injured children transferred to the hospital for specialist treatment.
The study was ordered by the Department of Health in January after a number of critically ill children had to be ferried around the country in search of an intensive-care place because their local hospital was unable to provide one.
The Government claimed information on pediatric intensive care units (ICUs) was not held centrally. Under pressure from Labour, it asked a team from Sheffield Children's Hospital to survey the number of ICU places available nationwide.
The study, which will be examined by Ministers before being released, has found that, on average, 11% of pediatric beds in Britain are closed. However, Glasgow Sick Children's recorded a 50% closure rate, by far the highest in Britain.
The specialist hospitals with pediatric ICUs were asked by the Sheffield team to list two figures: their total number of ICU beds and the number currently open.
In Scotland, the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh listed six beds in its pediatric ICU, with all six open. Its Glasgow counterpart listed a total of 14 beds but with only seven or eight open.
However, Dr Alistair Miller, medical director of Yorkhill Hospitals NHS Trust, cast doubts on the figure of 14 beds in Glasgow.
``We consider ourselves as having nine staffed beds and that capacity can be increased, by drafting in staff, to up to 12 beds. Staffing is often a problem because of the specialist nature of the work,'' he said.
Dr Miller said that, if necessary, the unit could also expand by calling on ICU beds in the neo-natal surgery ward. ``There's always a funding issue about everything but working on nine beds would generally meet our requirements,'' he said.
Over the last fortnight, the unit has been operating at its capacity of 12. ``What we have meets our demands for the great majority of the time,'' he added.
However, Mr McLeish expressed concerns about the implications for pediatric care in Scotland.
He said the survey showed ``that of the beds that are available in Britain, over 11% of them are not being used. We find that in the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow an astonishing 50% of the available beds are not open. I am demanding answers to the questions of why those beds are not being used.
``If it is a resource issue in terms of finance, staffing or equipment, this then becomes a matter for the Government.''
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