Premature babies that require extended neonatal care have been termed as bed blockers by one of Britain’s leading College of Medicine.
Research on evidences from premature births have revealed that extensive neonatal care for babies under 25 weeks is often conducted at the cost of treatment time of other infants. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) have presented these evidences to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics to draw attention to the limited resources available to provide routine intensive care to such infants, declaring that they should be allowed to die instead.The Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) have declared that premature babies under 25 weeks are blocking neonatal care for healthier infants. The growing view among childcare specialists that the thousands of pounds and months of care required for such infants needs to be carefully reconsidered.
According to the RCOG such issues of bed blocking often cause women who are in labor to be transferred to other units thereby compromising the health of these women and their babies.
Research presented to the RCPCH also reveal that education expenses of such infants by the age of six is almost three times as those who were born at full term. Significant disabilities in babies under 25 weeks also makes lifetime cost a serious issue to be considered.
Consideration of such issues has brought Britain in step with Holland, which is the only country in Europe that accepts the death of such babies.
