Surge in children taken to A&E for coughs and colds

Hospital emergency departments are being deluged by children with coughs and  tummy upsets due to a failure in GP out of hours services, research suggests. It shows that number of youngsters being taken to A&E with health problems that  would normally be dealt with by family doctors has gone up by 42 per cent in  the last decade. Experts say the “patchy” out of hours service cover is forcing worried parents  to rush their children to hospital whenever they feel slightly off colour. Researchers from Nottingham Children’s Hospital and the Queen’s Medical Centre,  Nottingham University looked at the records of more than 39,000 children attending A&E in 2007/08, and compared them with records from ten years earlier. They found that 14,724 – or 85 per cent -  turned up with medical problems such  as breathing difficulties, a fever, diarrhoea, a rash or a cough. This was 42 per cent higher compared to ten years ago when just 10,369 children  attended for this reason, the study published in Emergency Medical Journal. Although some of these symptoms may have been serious, experts warn that in the  past parent would have gone to their GP. John Heyworth warned that he breakdown in GPs out of hours care was giving the  public “a raw deal.” Since GPs’ new contract was introduced in 2004 they have been able to opt out  of working evenings and weekends – even though their average salary rose by  more than £30,000. The responsibility of out-of-hours care now falls to local health trusts – and  many hire private firms which depend on locum doctors to provide this cover. Mr Heyworth added: 'Parents have found in the last few years that accessing  primary care is more difficult than previously,' Mr Heyworth said. 'We need to change that. There's a desperate need for better access in hours but particularly at  weekends and evenings. 'Out-of-hours care is extremely variable in terms of promptness of response and  the level of reassurance given to patients.'