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Mental health admissions to paediatric acute wards and bed occupancy: an increasing concern
  1. Marian Allen1,
  2. Cat Edwards1,
  3. Peter J Davis1,2
  1. 1 South West Paediatric Critical Care Operational Delivery Network, NHS England South West, Bristol, UK
  2. 2 Bristol Royal Hospital for Children Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, Bristol, England, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Peter J Davis; Peter.Davis{at}uhbw.nhs.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2025-328487

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    During 2023, the 10 district general hospitals (DGHs) in the south west of England highlighted to the Paediatric Critical Care Operational Delivery Network (PCC ODN) the increasing capacity and workload pressures due to caring for children and young people (CYP) with mental health admissions in the acute paediatric ward setting.

    In response to this, in autumn 2023, the PCC ODN added two questions to their daily regional dashboard of all inpatient paediatric activity:

    1. Total numbers of child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) inpatients today.

    2. Total numbers of eating disorder inpatients today.

    Nurses on the wards completed the activity dashboard once a day. Each morning, they were asked to report mental health inpatients as either ‘CAMHS ‘or ‘eating disorder’, so any CYP with …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors All authors have been involved in the writing of this manuscript and reviewed the drafts and submitted paper. MA: data acquisition, data analysis and data interpretation; CE: data acquisition and data analysis; PJD: paper conception, lead author, data analysis and data interpretation. PJD is responsible for the overall content as guarantor.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.