HELP FOR PARENTS CONCERNING STREP A AND SCARLET FEVER

There are lots of viruses that cause sore throats, colds and coughs circulating. These should resolve without medical intervention. However, children can on occasion develop a bacterial infection on top of a virus and that can make them more unwell.

As a parent, if you feel that your child seems seriously unwell, you should trust your own judgement. Contact NHS 111 or your GP if:

your child is getting worse
your child is feeding or eating much less than normal
your child has had a dry nappy for 12 hours or more or shows other signs of dehydration
your baby is under 3 months and has a temperature of 38°C, or is older than 3 months and has a temperature of 39°C or higher
your baby feels hotter than usual when you touch their back or chest, or feels sweaty
your child is very tired or irritable

Call 999 or go to A&E if:

your child is having difficulty breathing – you may notice grunting noises or their tummy sucking under their ribs
there are pauses when your child breathes
your child’s skin, tongue or lips are blue
your child is floppy and will not wake up or stay awake

Unsurprisingly this has driven a huge escalation in demand for children to be assessed in primary care or the A&E department.

We recognise that this will impact on the capacity of General Practice to service other demands. In the context of competing priorities our efforts will have to focus on servicing the most acute demand. Each practice will have to consider what adjustments it needs to make to its service delivery to ensure that capacity remains focussed on those with the most acute needs. We do not propose to micro-manage that from the HB but to allow practices to exercise their own judgment and common sense. We are available to provide a steer to practices if deemed necessary.

Our advice in respect of acutely unwell children is to offer them a same day face to face assessment unless you can satisfy yourself that it is completely unnecessary. Ordinarily children should have face to face assessment before referring them to secondary care. Where you believe that there is extreme clinical urgency it is of course appropriate to divert children directly and immediately to A&E . In that scenario you should alert A&E to the impending arrival of a child you believe to be critically unwell.

Advice on the clinical management of suspected scarlet fever is available at:

Scarlet fever | Health topics A to Z | CKS | NICE

A good source of advice for parents and carers is :

Strep A and scarlet fever :: Healthier Together