Hospital activity amongst children aged 0–19 with and without life-limiting conditions in Ireland, 2009–2024

<ns3:p>Background Life-limiting conditions (LLCs) in children include conditions where curative treatment may be feasible but can fail or where there is no reasonable hope of cure. Children and young people with LLCs have been found to be resource-intense healthcare users, but evidence is limited to a small number of countries. Responding to this gap, this paper provides detailed information on inpatient hospital activity for children aged 0–19 with and without LLCs in Ireland to inform healthcare policy and provision, including paediatric palliative care. Methods Data: public acute hospital discharges aged 0–19, national Hospital In-Patient Enquiry. Discharges categorised as: with and without LLCs (recorded in any of 30 diagnostic fields). Descriptive analysis: number of discharges over time; inpatients only: principal diagnoses and procedures, resource use (length of stay, intensive care, complexity), deaths. Results Day and inpatient public acute hospital LLC discharges increased from 13.1% to 14.3% of total discharges aged 0–19 between 2009–2019. All discharges in this age group fell by 24.5% in 2020 (Covid-19 onset), increasing since then. Inpatient LLC discharges aged 0–19 accounted for <8% of total inpatient discharges aged 0–19 in Irish public acute hospitals in 2019 (pre-Covid-19), used almost 20% of total bed days, 23.3% of intensive care bed days. Conclusions Inpatient LLC discharges in Irish public acute hospitals were complex and resource-use intensive. The findings highlighted important lessons for healthcare policy and provision, palliative care training and education, hospital management, data collection and further analysis in this field.</ns3:p>