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Hospital wards for adolescents should be considered

National survey of use of hospital beds by adolescents aged 12 to 19 in the United Kingdom

Editorial: Do we need specialist adolescent units in hospital?

Enough 12 to 19 year-olds are admitted to British hospitals to justify separate hospital facilities specifically for adolescents, argues Russell Viner, Consultant in Adolescent Medicine at University College London, in this week's BMJ.

By examining the numbers of hospital bed days of inpatients and day case patients aged 12 to 19 years in 37 health authorities and boards across Britain, he found that the use of hospital beds increases rather than decreases through adolescence. This contradicts the assumption that adolescents use hospitals rarely and do not merit separate facilities.

Although dedicated wards for adolescents may not be possible in many hospitals, says the author, the provision of other facilities should be considered, he concludes.

This view is reiterated by adolescent health experts, Aidan Macfarlane and Robert Blum, in an accompanying editorial. They write, "even where the numbers do not justify a separate ward for adolescents, a multidisciplinary approach from health professionals with interest and expertise in adolescent health is still feasible in every hospital."

Contacts:

[Paper]: Russell Viner, Consultant in Adolescent Medicine, Department of Medicine, UCL Hospitals & UCL Medical School, London, UK Email: R.Viner@ich.ucl.ac.uk

[Editorial]: Aidan Macfarlane, Consultant in strategic planning of child and adolescent services, Oxford, UK Email: Aidanmacfa@aol.com

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