Ministers urged to act to stop babies being admitted to hospital unnecessarily

Leading children’s doctors have implored the Government to introduce urgently a “game-changer” vaccine which could prevent thousands of babies and pre-schoolers from being admitted to hospital every year and help relieve winter pressure in the NHS.

In June, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised ministers that they should press head with a vaccination programme for respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, for both babies and older adults.

But the Government is yet to respond to the call.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) said every year RSV grinds children’s hospital services to a “halt” and that a vaccination programme could ease the burden of the virus on both families and the pressures that it causes the NHS.

Dr Camilla Kingdon, president of the RCPCH, told the PA news agency: “RSV is a massive problem every single winter. We’ve now got a way out of it. We just need to get on and do it.”

She added: “We were thrilled when the JCVI published their guidance in support of a national rollout of an RSV vaccination programme and since then we’ve been waiting. I’m not reassured that much has happened in terms of next steps.

“I’m not in any way diminishing the fact that some very careful thought needs to be gone through to understand what’s going to be the most efficient way of doing this and then the practicalities of how to do that.

“If we really want to make a difference for next winter – because this winter we’re clearly too late to influence in any way in terms of RSV – we’ve really got to get our skates on.

“And so, as a college you know our message is very simple: please can we make this a priority.

“It could be a game-changer for the 2024/25 winter, but if we really want to make a difference for that winter, we’ve got to hurry up and make some decisions and get cracking.”

She said this year had been particularly “bad” for RSV cases, adding: “Without a shadow of a doubt I can tell you that as a paediatrician every single winter RSV is a major problem.

“What we see in winter is that our children’s wards tend to become absolutely chock-a-block with babies who are in needing a little bit of oxygen, maybe needing some help with feeding, and then our intensive care units as well.”

Dr Kingdon, a neonatologist, said that at this time of year children’s wards are “pretty much full”, predominantly with RSV cases, adding: “Sadly, that means that planned or elective complex surgery has to be cancelled – I’m particularly thinking about children who are waiting for congenital cardiac surgery, children having complex spinal and other complex surgeries where they’re going to need a PICU (paediatric intensive care) bed postoperatively – because we just don’t have capacity across the NHS.”

Asked what the hold-up for the rollout of the programme could be, she said: “The truth is, I don’t know what the delay is or why there’s been a delay.

“For those of us in the child health world, we do frequently see that, particularly when the NHS is under a lot of pressure, that priorities for children are downgraded.

“I think the assumption is ‘children are largely healthy and RSV is just a virus’, and to some extent that’s not untrue, but actually for two months of the year it literally grinds acute care for children to a halt.”

She added: “I do think children often are just forgotten, which is why as a Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health we are campaigning so actively for this to be made a priority and to really be focused on now that we’ve got the JCVI decision.”

RSV is a common respiratory bug that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms, and most children will have the virus before they are two.

But for number of children it can lead to severe disease, or even death.

According to the Oxford Vaccine Group, RSV accounts for around 450,000 GP appointments, 29,000 hospital admissions and 83 deaths every year in children and adolescents in the UK, the majority in infants.

Each year in the UK the virus circulates in the winter months and typically peaks in December.

Studies have shown that an RSV jab is up to 83.2% effective at preventing RSV hospital admissions among babies.

And modelling suggests that rolling out an RSV vaccine to infants could result in 108,000 fewer GP consultations, 74,000 fewer A&E visits and 20,000 fewer hospital admissions a year, solely in those aged under one.

Symptoms include a runny nose, decreased appetite, coughing, sneezing, fever and wheezing.

Parents are urged to seek emergency help if babies are not drinking enough, if a baby is visibly working hard to breathe, or has pauses between breaths or starts to turn blue.

A Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are working with the UK Health Security Agency and NHS England to explore the feasibility and options for implementing an effective RSV programme for infants and older adults, in line with JCVI advice.

“We recognise the impact RSV has, both on individuals and on the capacity of our NHS services, and a final decision on whether or how a vaccination programme could be introduced will be made in due course.”