Parental access and family facilities in children's wards in England

Abstract

These findings indicate that we have reached a halfway stage in the implementation of the Platt recommendations. Parents are still looked on as visitors in half the wards, which limit their presence by blanket rules. These wards need to think through the implications of this policy; if it is desirable for a parent not to be present at any time or on operating day it should be discussed individually with the particular child's welfare in mind. The analysis of the data for ear, nose, and throat wards confirms the picture we have built - namely, that parents have more problems in these wards than in any other. These wards have, however, improved more rapidly than other wards over the past seven years - for instance, the proportion of wards with unrestricted access has risen from 8% to 32%. The provision of overnight accommodation for parents is still far from satisfactory. In wards where parents are encouraged to stay and help with the care of their children more than half choose to do so. Elsewhere, wards provide no accommodation at all or the ward sisters claim that parents' beds lie empty; in these cases, we feel that there may be a negative attitude that discourages parents from asking to stay. The wards that welcome parents display enormous ingenuity in finding and locating beds, even though the ward might be old and crowded. At least half of the wards that nurse children are not yet part of comprehensive children's units. There has been a welcome trend to admit children to the district general hospital rather than to the small local hospital, especially for surgery. Nevertheless, few specialist surgical wards are being incorporated into the children's unit, even in new hospitals. More disturbing is the problem that arises with the modern trend to open a hospital in parts; in certain cases, the comprehensive unit has been threatened by plans to hive off one part.