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<\/p>\nChildren are \u201csecond-rate citizens\u201d in the NHS, the nation\u2019s top paediatrician has said, adding that the health service is \u201cmissing opportunities\u201d to treat them in Britain. <\/p>\n
Professor Steve Turner, the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said outcomes for children were worse \u201cacross the board\u201d compared with when he started in the field. <\/p>\n
The number of children waiting more than 52 weeks for elective care has increased by 60 per cent in two years, and paediatricians are struggling to care for children with more complex health conditions, the college has said in a report seen by The Times. <\/p>\n
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Professor Steve Turner<\/p>\n
RCPCH<\/p>\n
Turner said: \u201cThe outcomes of children in the years I\u2019ve been a paediatrician are pretty much, across the board, worse than they were when I started. Whichever way I look at it, children are pretty much second-rate citizens in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stressed that the NHS<\/a> must \u201cget it right first time\u201d for children, warning that long waiting lists for treatment meant that crucial windows of opportunity to address health problems were being missed. <\/p>\n He added that some children were screened for hearing loss as infants, but that because there were no follow-ups, many missed the opportunity for a cochlear implant. <\/p>\n \u201cChildren who\u2019d failed that [hearing test], nothing was done, and so they were missed,\u201d he said. \u201cThey missed that critical window. [These children] should have had a cochlear implant put in by about nine months of age\u2026 but because that opportunity was missed, putting a cochlear implant in when they\u2019re three or four is too late.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Children wait years for mental health care<\/a><\/p>\n He said: \u201cThese individuals are going to go on and have a lifetime of preventable harm and most of that harm is going to be educational and economic.\u201d<\/p>\n The college\u2019s report, which makes recommendations for the government\u2019s ten-year NHS workforce plan<\/a>, found that the number of children waiting more than a year for care within the community had increased by 94 per cent in two years. <\/p>\n