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Children's and young people's experience of the NHS
The ‘new’ NHS has consultation and patient experience at its core, although there is very little data on it particularly in children and young people. Hargreaves and Viner review the inclusion of children and young people in the 38 national surveys of patient experience in the NHS carried out between 2001 and 2011. Patients under age 16 years were included in just 1 of the 38, representing just 0.6% of recipients, although inclusion of 16–24 year olds was better. The results are discussed and although satisfaction was generally good it was ‘less good’ in the 18–24 year olds than older adults. The authors highlight the Kennedy report (2010) recommendation to improve health services for children and young people to the satisfaction of patients, carers and staff and rightly call for greater inclusion of children and young people when feedback is sought. See page 661
New therapies for asthma
Most children with asthma respond to standard therapies although a small proportion with the most severe disease require long term treatment with oral prednisolone. Brodlie et al report the outcome of 34 …