Healthcare prioritisation and inequitable inequalities: why a child health perspective should be incorporated into the current NHS guidance

Lignou, Sapfo; Wolfe, Ingrid

doi:10.1136/archdischild-2023-325634

Arch Dis Child

2023

DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2023-325634

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Healthcare prioritisation and inequitable inequalities: why a child health perspective should be incorporated into the current NHS guidance

Sapfo Lignou

Ingrid Wolfe

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2024

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Healthcare resource allocation decisions and non-emergency treatments in the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic. How should children with chronic illness feature in prioritisation processes?

Lignou,

Sheehan,

Parker

et al. 2024

Wellcome Open Res

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Background In the aftermath of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, allocation of non-urgent medical interventions is a persistent ethical challenge as health systems currently face an unprecedented backlog of patients requiring treatment. Difficult decisions must be made that prioritise certain patients over others. Ethical resource allocation requires that the needs of all patients are considered properly, but at present there is no guidance that can help support such decision-making which explicitly considers the needs of children with chronic and complex conditions. Methods This paper reviews the NHS guidance for priorities and operational planning and examines how the needs of children with chronic illness are addressed in NHS objectives for restoring services and meeting elective care demands. Results The usual criteria for prioritisation featured in the NHS guidance fail to account for the distinct needs of children with chronic illnesses and fail to match more general considerations of what constitutes fair resource allocation decisions. To address this issue, two considerations, namely 'protecting age-related opportunity' and 'recognising complexity of care,' are proposed as additions to the existing approach. Conclusion By providing a broader conception of needs, these criteria address inefficiencies of the current guidance and relevant ethical frameworks and help to embed a currently missing children-related ethical approach to healthcare policy making in general.

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Healthcare resource allocation decisions and non-emergency treatments in the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic. How should children with chronic illness feature in prioritisation processes?

Lignou,

Sheehan,

Parker

et al. 2024

Wellcome Open Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

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Healthcare prioritisation and inequitable inequalities: why a child health perspective should be incorporated into the current NHS guidance

Cited by 1 publication

References 6 publications

Healthcare resource allocation decisions and non-emergency treatments in the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic. How should children with chronic illness feature in prioritisation processes?

Healthcare resource allocation decisions and non-emergency treatments in the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic. How should children with chronic illness feature in prioritisation processes?

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