 News
27th March 2006
Prem babies accused of hospital bed blocking
The Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (RCOG) have
said that very premature babies who need months of expensive care are
blocking beds that could be used by healthier babies.
In a report to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics the College said that
the high demand from premature births means that some expectant mothers
with potentially healthier babies are forced into other hospitals at a
late stage.
The report also said, "One of the problems of the "success" of neo-natal
intensive care is that the practitioners are always pushing the 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."
Premature baby campaigners and mothers attacked the language used as
"insensitive" and "a disgrace".
However, the RCOG statement reflects growing opinion among doctors and
specialists towards the withholding of treatment from babies born under
25 weeks.
Baroness Warnock, the leading medical ethics expert, has said that Britain
should follow the example of Holland, the only European country that says
such babies should die.
She believes that it would prevent doctors from competing to keep alive
babies that may not survive in the long-term.
A spokesman for the RCOG said yesterday, "There is a proper professional
concern around the death and handicap rate in babies born under 25 weeks."
The UK has the highest rate of low birthweight babies in western Europe
and a neo-natal intensive care bed costs about £1,000 a day.
Very premature babies can require round-the-clock help for many months
but aspokesman for Bliss, the premature baby charity said, "The care of
premature babies is already an area that is under-resourced and overstretched,
and it is not helpful to suggest that their worth can be calculated in
terms of money."
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