Early warning system for deteriorating children to expand to emergency departments across England

An early warning system to spot deteriorating children will be rolled out across England’s emergency departments this winter.Called the Paediatric Early Warning System (PEWS), this requires staff to measure, record, and assess children’s vital signs, before assigning them a score. A higher score will result in the child receiving more urgent attention.Even if their clinical score is low, a child’s care can be escalated if medical staff, parents, or the patient themselves raise concerns, according to the plans announced by NHS England (NHSE).The PEWS system is already in use across 90 paediatric inpatient wards. Data show that these trusts have consistently lower rates of cardiac arrests among patients, NHSE said.1A similar system is also in use for adults across NHS hospitals. However, the children’s system includes age appropriate charts reflecting the different clinical needs of babies, children, and teens.While standardised scoring systems have been used in Denmark and across some...