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OB: VLBW's 'Bed Blockers'From: art fougner, md (evsono@pipeline.com)Mon Mar 27 12:06:15 2006
PREMATURE babies requiring expensive hospital care have been described as “bed blockers” by one of the country’s leading medical colleges. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) says that the ability of doctors to keep alive babies born under 25 weeks presents difficulties for the treatment of other infants. Its comments were made in a submission to an inquiry by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics into the ethics of prolonging life in foetuses and the newborn. The RCOG paper states: “Some weight should be given to economic considerations as there is a real issue in neonatal units of “bed blocking”, whereby women have to be transferred in labour to other units compromising both their and their babies’ care. “One of the problems of the ‘success’ of neonatal intensive care is that the practitioners are always pushing boundaries. There has been a constant need to expand numbers of cots to cover the increasing tendency to try and rescue babies at lower and lower gestations.” The college’s paper was submitted in July 2005 but its content has been highlighted as NHS trusts come under growing pressure to cut costs and use resources more efficiently. The RCOG said last night: “There is a proper professional concern around the high death and handicap rate in babies born under 25 weeks. A wellinformed and considered debate is welcomed.” Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, said yesterday that admitting patients who were unfit for surgery or arrived early for operations was blocking beds and costing the NHS up to £200 a day each. http://www.freerepublic.com/%5Ehttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,170-2105990,00.html Art
-- art fougner, md Support Free Speech Buy Danish!
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