Get the data

Deasy and colleagues (see page 411) report from their VACAR registry in Australia on paediatric hangings and bring some objectivity to a highly emotional and typically anecdotal area of our experience. They give data on outcomes and show that we must simply do more to prevent these catastrophes. A commentary from Pearson in the UK (see page 371) discusses how the extreme sensitivity may be concealing the magnitude of the problem. My simple maths gives a rate of one child death per year for each UK NHS hospital catchment area.

Wood et al (see page 387) highlight the difficulties with emergency attendance coding, in this case with regard to acute drug related attendances to Emergency Departments. They show that demonstrating the extent of the problem is a real challenge; less than half …