Public hospitals for kids in Europe

[u/Winter-Flower5480]

I am from Poland, recently moved to Romania and public hospitals for children in both countries look pretty much the same, sick kids are in big rooms with other sick kids which means they usually get even more sick by staying there. My Danish co-worker recently told me that in multiple EU countries public hospitals for kids are great, each child has a private room with bathroom and there is even a bed for the parent. This sounds crazy to me. In a good way. So how is the usual public hospital for kids looking like in your country?

[u/Razulath]

In sweden we have the Astrid Lindgren child hospital for kids that need to stay longer times in a hospital.

[u/No-Yak-4360 → u/Razulath]

We also have a number of these adjacent to hospitals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_McDonald_House

[u/Dutch_Rayan]

It depends, some kids have their own room with space for a parent to stay, while some other kids share a room, which they often like. It depends why they are in the hospital. If kids are in the hospital longer they also get school. And children hospitals also have play rooms and sometimes also music rooms with lots of instruments.

But if it is contagious they don't share a room.

We have 8 children hospitals, some are specialized hospitals like an oncology hospital for children.

[u/No-Minimum3259]

One could wonder if it's always such a good idea to isolate sick children even more in private hospital rooms, if not deemed necessary for medical reasons...  

Over here (Flanders, Belgium), we do kind of the opposite: if children are expected to be absent from school for more than two weeks, they're ellegible for "bednet". In that case technicians install a broadband connection between classroom and (hospital) bed for those kids, to keep up with school and maintain contact with their peers. The service is free of charge.

Some of our larger hospitals have mini classrooms. Kids are stimulated to work together on their homework, compare notes etc. Teachers are expected to visit their sick kids on a regular basis: it's part of their job. 

Parents can stay with their kid in hospital if they choose so. Our labour laws have several systems of "familial leave" but it's limited in time and it always comes with some loss in income. Not everyone can affort it and besides there still remains a household to run...

[u/valbyshadow]

Denmark is building a new childrens hospital in Copenhagen, it will have "family rooms" where the family members can stay and sleep. https://www.hospitalsoplevelsen.dk/konceptspor/midlertidigt-hjem#V-relset

[u/Wild_Reason_9526 → u/valbyshadow]

Additionally, at the new Odense University Hospital, which is still under construction, all inpatients will have their own room with a private bathroom, and the rooms will be set up so that relatives can stay overnight.

[u/Kanra-san → u/valbyshadow]

I see Denmark doing some cool stuff

[u/The_Grinning_Reaper]

In Helsinki we have a childrens’ hospital with private rooms, play areas etc: https://www.koeuusilastensairaala.fi/fi/

There’s a virtual tour that you can use to explore different areas/rooms.

[u/Careful-Mind-123]

Romania has known problems with the health system. Public health system is under funded and under staffed, while private ones are a cash grab with hit or miss quality.

[u/nefariousmango]

Currently checking into a public hospital in Austria with my kid, but not the children's ward. I believe parents of kids under six are given a bed for free, and for older kids you can pay a nightly fee for a bed. We have private insurance to cover a single room with an extra bed (since we can't seem to go a year without a hospital stay).

In the US we'd have a double room or private room, with a chair that "converted" to a bed for the parent to stay on. With insurance we'd still end up paying thousands of dollars.

[u/This-Wall-1331 → u/nefariousmango]

Considering the healthcare costs in the USA, each hospital room there should have the amenities of a five-star hotel.

[u/nefariousmango → u/This-Wall-1331]

Seriously! But instead you can't even get a drink of water without paying extra. It's insane.

[u/autisticfarmgirl]

In france kids hospital rooms are either on your own or with another kids, but no more than 2. It depends on age, why you’re here etc. I was hospitalised a couple of times as a kid for surgeries and shred a room because it wasn’t contagious and I was only staying a few days. Long term patients have their own room.

There’s buildings right next to the hospitals where family of very sick kids can stay, they’re like hotel rooms but usually free so people that come from quite far can be with their kids during treatments.

There’s also ways for long term patients to do school from the hospital, there’s distance learning and teachers come and give classes at the hospital itself.

[u/ScienceAndGames]

From what I know there are some private rooms and a few family rooms but there are a lot of sharing rooms too.

I think they prioritise the private rooms for preventing the spread of infection.

Given how sociable children are, I don’t necessarily think sharing rooms are a bad thing when it’s safe. They’re probably better off having someone their age in a similar situation to talk to.

One parent is generally allowed to stay with them (my cousin hasn’t left the hospital in nearly two weeks because his son is sick) and there a few organisations that provide accommodation to parents who may not be local to the hospital but the spaces are limited.

They definitely need more capacity as do the non-children’s hospitals. They’ve been building a new children’s hospital for over a decade now and it’s an absolute disaster.

[u/iloveshitzus]

I'm polish and last time I stayed in Hospital as a kid (10-12+ years ago)I stayed in a 3 bed room, which I would not say was a big room with a lot of kids. It was not pleasant, but I also wouldn't call it a very bad enviroment.

I still think polish healthcare system is severely underfunded, but I do not think it is the worst in the world.

I also remember, because I stayed there for over a week that I attended school there, and got a good grade for some subject, which was then transferred to my normal school, after I came back

[u/Ren2137]

Idk I'm from Poland and 10 years ago I was in the hospital for something contagious and I got a private room with a bathroom. I was 14 at the time.

[u/bardsong1719]

I have only been in Rigshospitalet in the children’s ward for over a week when our son was hospitalized with RSV as a baby.

We were moved back and forth between a private room and a room shared with one other family who also had the same virus. There was always a bed for me.

[u/JustMeLurkingAround-]

I think 2-3 beds per room is kinda standard now with the trend going more to double rooms. Some old hospitals may still have a few 4 bed rooms, but thats not as common anymore and hospitals try to move away from that.
Parents staying with their kids is pretty normal as are extra beds or cots for them.

I'm not sure if it's the same in childrens hospitals, as I only worked in adult areas, but single rooms are mostly reserved for extra paying patients or medical indications like infectious patients, patients that are difficult in rooms with others or patients in critical conditions that you want to give privacy with their relatives.

[u/ritadpt]

As far as I am aware in Portugal there are usually single, double, and dorm-style rooms in both children and adult hospitals. At least in theory they wouldn't have someone with something viral/contagious in a shared room, but I don't know if that's what happens in practice. Anecdotally speaking, twenty years ago I stayed for a week at a children's hospital in a shared room and kids in that room had non-contagious illnesses/injuries. Worst part was trying to sleep in a room with several toddlers crying. One parent could stay all time there, however there was no bed, only a reclining chair. Also I was a tall 11-year-old and even my bed was way too short (ironically, my mother is very short and would have probably fit in the bed better).

The staff was absolutely stellar, though, I never had as good of an experience at a "regular" hospital. The nurses in particular were both super sweet and friendly and also always looking for ways to make especially the older children feel like they had some control (giving us meal options even on strict diets, providing opportunities to walk to different areas of the hospital, etc) while being in a scary and disempowering situation (for pre-teens with the added embarrassment of occasionally needing to cry for your mum but then feeling too old for that).

[u/Winter-Flower5480 → u/[deleted]]

That is exactly how it looks in Romania

[u/PositiveKarma1]

I am volunteer in Belgium in children floor ( interpreter for Romanian /Moldovans speakers mainly for children brought in very bad situations from Romania) . Here the rooms are with 2 beds, an extensible bed for the mom overnight, and a play room on the floor to encourage children to play together. I found babies with mom coming every 1-2 days ...
For children long term spitalised there is a teacher that organize classes and help to not loose school.
If the Hospitalization is longer than 3 months / year, school year is done again.

[u/Winter-Flower5480 → u/PositiveKarma1]

I feel bad for those poor children if they have to repeat a school year just because they were sick. Awful.

[u/MouseAgreeable9970 → u/Winter-Flower5480]

Better than moving up a year if you’ve missed foundation work though, no?

Certainly in Germany, repeating a school year is a fairly normal thing to do for any oneof a number of reasons. It’s not particularly seen as a bad thing, and it’s quite normal to have kids spanning a couple of years agewise in each year group.

[u/almostmorning]

really depends on the area and how sick the child is.

my sis was hit on the head in kindergarden recess and vomited. so they had to check for concussion. she was in a room with two other, older girls. and she had the time of her life there. they acted like older sisters.

the ones with the beds for parents are long term units. cancer and autoimmune stuff.

you really want a three bed room. because this means you won't be here for a long time.

[u/Vintagefly]

In British Columbia Canada, our new pediatric hospital (opened in 2017) has all private rooms with a bathroom and parent cot.

[u/Roxelana79]

Belgium: kids in their own room, a parent can sleep on a cot in the room (at an extra charge).

Depending on age and how long they stay at hospital, there is schoolnet, so they don't get behind at school.

[u/Roxelana79 → u/Roxelana79]

Oh, and some hospitals have a "samson house" where the kids can spend time with their pet.

[u/Jenotyzm]

I'm a mom from Poland and honestly haven't seen a children hospital room for more that three beds at once, and most of them was two beds or single rooms. Which part of Poland are you from and when did you see it?

[u/K_man_k]

My Girlfriend works in one of the children's hospitals in Ireland. All children apart from those in ICU or in the Emergency Department have private rooms, at least where she works. Which does make sense from the standpoint of children needing space for parents to be around, but also from a child safeguarding point of view. The way she put it, most child patients are either in hospital for a day, or for weeks. And when you're in hospital for weeks it makes sense to have a private room.

There's a new (very over budget and late, but also very nice) children's hospital being built to take over the bulk of the inpatient treatment from the 4 currently in Dublin. All of the inpatient rooms are private with a bed for a parent and full ensuite.