Why does the UK have 16-17 year olds on adult wards?

[Dodgeitornot]

Just that. I've always been confused by it. As far as I know, most countries in Europe, or even the world, keep patients in pediatrics until they turn 18 or even 21. Why does the UK move them to adult wards so early? Isn't this a safeguarding risk?

@Dodgeitornot annoyingly they haven't worked...Google 'child admitted to adult ward'and you can view the policies published by individual trusts

@Beseen22 That's amazing, thank you for that. Emergency admission is what I mean more you're right, but this is really interesting and explains it well.

Just ignore them. I've reported all their posts.

Mixed sex wards should be banned completely.

Agree with that 100%.

Strange that we have dementia wards in care homes but not in hospitals. To me that's probably the root of OPs issue. Single sex would be best and failing that actual dementia bays / rooms on each ward. Probably too much to ask though!

Flippin heck. I'm so sorry you and your daughter went through that. It's sad that this does seem to be the case in some areas of the UK. There's a PP that said on the SW hospital they work in the children's ward admits kids up to 17 and they have a separate bay for teen boys and girls. It should be the norm really as it safeguards everyone and gives some peace of mind to the parents of the littles.

I do think the mixed wards is probably the root of my issue, although I imagine it's still quite traumatic being surrounded by really sick and often elderly women when you're 16 and without your parents.
I have no idea how mixed wards are even allowed tbh.

My limited experience of the local Children's ward are that they are mixed sex, they try to sort the bays by age, so you don't have baby's next to 10yos.

Is it really appropriate for teens to be in the same bay as the opposite sex?

Adult wards should at least have separate male/ female bays.

I obtained a full time job three weeks after my 16th birthday, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have wanted to be put in a children's ward if I had to have gone into hospital.

Nor a ward with geriatric patients.

My mum is 87, doesn’t have dementia and wouldn’t hurt a fly but twice when she’s been in hospital she’s developed delirium and been yelling all night, trying to climb over the bed rails (with a broken hip!). Every day I’d arrive for visiting hours to hear of her overnight exploits. Thankfully in Australia she’s been in major hospitals where they’ve had elderly people in together. It would be terrifying for a young person to be sharing a ward with someone wailing and flailing about all night. My DS heard a few babies crying across the hall but he just put his headphones on.

I find the whole mixed ward thing really weird and uncomfortable. No privacy, curtains which get swished aside by over enthusiastic staff. I've hated that my parents, during their various stays in hospital (and me when I had a leg operation a few years ago) don't have privacy (or quiet). That's the real issue. A 16 year old shouldn't be with toddlers OR adults.
There's a new hospital near me with individual rooms and the experiences we've had with that are far far better.

It's a tricky one. I've been on our local children's ward countless times with my dc. There is always a mixture of different aged and different illnesses and it's common to have toddlers waiting for elective surgery running around sharing a bay with a teenager who has taken an overdose. There are children with cancer, children having their tonsils out.

I have a 17 year old who has autism and most parents of toddlers wouldn't want him with their little ones. However I would want him somewhere where I could stay with him at all times.

I have also been in a specialist children's hospital where there are separate wards for teenagers and various different specialities. However we live an hours drive away and we live relatively close compared with some families. That's not ideal either, especially if your child is in for longer than a day or two or if you have other children at home as well as the child in hospital.

I'm in "the rest of the world", and while it's struggle to find information on the ages here it does appear that you stop being admitted to a children's ward once you are 16.

USA here.

Paediatrics here includes adolescent medicine, so up to the age of 21. People with chronic conditions can transition anytime after age 18 and when they do depends on the specifics of their condition. In some cases, as life expectancy has increased significantly, it's been harder to get adult providers. In others, a condition might progress beyond what the paediatric specialist is used to, and they get transferred to adult care sooner.

Rooms in children's hospitals are singles or two patients; new ones tend to be single. They try to group the adolescent patients together where possible. In psychiatric/MH programmes they absolutely split the teens from the younger children and sometimes they split younger teens from older where possible.

And there are gynaecologists who have a particular interest in adolescent medicine. Some children's hospitals include gynae services for treating menstrual issues, contraception, PCOS, endometriosis. For example: https://www.chop.edu/services/adolescent-gynecology-program

Our local hospital, not a large one, has a mix of all ages on the wards. Generally those with dementia are kept in one room where there is constantly someone with them, or accompanying them if they leave the room. I don't see why other geriatric patients are any more a threat than anyone else.

Ireland 1991. I was 15 and deeply depressed so was admitted for safety. No adolescent services locally so it was decided that the acute ward would be "traumatic" so they put me on a geriatric ward, so I was 1 of 12 patients (6 female/male) , all others were 80+ in age and were long stay.

I still have trauma to this day in relation to that hospital visit, I shouldn't have been put in that position and did it help my depression. No but I learned what I needed to say to get out. I was encouraged to smoke by the staff and hadn't a clue what was happening most of the time. I was drugged to stupor. I was readmitted a few weeks later and was put on the acute ward. Far less traumatic but major damage had already been done

My local hospital actually asked my niece to move from children's to adult ward as she ended up in for 5 days after appendix operation and reaction to medications given. She turned 18 while admitted so ha had to move wards.

You have misread or misunderstood my posts up thread.

OP, you seem to be infantilising 16 year olds. In Scotland, when I was at medical school, many of the first year students were 16 years old and were dissecting corpses in their first week learning anatomy as medical students. If they had fallen ill, it would have been ridiculous to admit them to a children’s ward, and they would have been rightly furious! 16 year olds can vote, work and marry in Scotland. They are not children.

I remember going to hospital in the 90s when I was 16 and being put on a children's ward. I thought it was really weird and had expected to be in the normal ward. Children's wards are full of primary colours and cartoons and toys and I didn't feel like I was in the right place.

The problem with adult services for complex paediatric patients. Is that paediatrics is a one stop shop. There will usually be a paediatrician overseeing everything. Who sees the complete child. In adults, everything is dealt with separately. Which makes transfer to adults even more difficult.

It’s until 18 in our area of the U.K. My teen Dd has had countless admissions to paediatrics and they are full of teens struggling with mental health problems such as ODs and EDs. She was in paeds until the day of her 18th birthday.The brain is still developing until 25. They are put in separate single sex bays off the main paed ward and treated by staff well trained in handling teens. There needs to be better provision for teens and the 18-25 year group across the NHS as geriatric and other mixed adult wards are not the places for young people like my daughter.

Some posters need to remember it’s not a one size fits all scenario. Teens vary hugely.

7.3m on waiting lists, patients stacked up in corridors, 18 waits to access AE and patients dying in ambulances waiting to off load the sick - oh and 155k vacancies in the NHS alone, lets add in the lowest number of beds and scanners in Europe per capita.

So where in this world can the NHS accommodate single sex wards?

We have been told for many GE's that voting Tory risks the NHS, we ignored that, so we have got what we wished for.

Unless you are a rapist. Then according to Scotland you are a child until you are 25.

Paddington, that’s the idiot judicial system for you, but I believe that sentence has gone to appeal as too lenient.