One Monday morning several years ago I had a telephone call from an acquaintance who told me that his 3 year old son had been seen by his GP over the weekend because of a feverish illness and had now come out in some red-blue spots. The child survived, but only after some very worrying days in the intensive care unit.

Mortality among children in hospital with meningococcal disease has been related to lack of paediatric care, inadequate supervision of junior staff, and inadequate use of inotropes ( BMJ2005;330:1475–8OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text) . Now the same study population has provided data about pre-hospital …