Children facing intensive care shortage

Hundreds of critically-ill children are being turned away from intensive care units, the Labour Party will claim today.

Around 403 children have been rejected from paediatric intensive care facilities across England since October last year because of bed shortages, according to a Labour survey.

The party claimed that 193 critically ill children were turned away last December alone, and at 16 of the 19 hospitals surveyed, 84 youngsters have been rejected in the first two weeks of January.

Labour plans to raise the issue in an emergency Commons debate on the NHS today.