The health emergency hospitalising more and more Greater Manchester children

A group of parents and an NHS GP are warning that the NHS faces a ‘health emergency’ as the number of children being hospitalised in Manchester for respiratory conditions has nearly doubled in the last two years. New figures obtained by the campaign group 'Mums for Lungs' show that the number of paediatric respiratory admissions in England's largest hospital trust, based in Manchester, has increased from 684 in 2021 to 1,345 in 2023 - an increase of 97 per cent, the latest figures that are available.

Greater Manchester itself has the highest proportion of children under 19 being hospitalised for asthma. The region is 65 per cent worse than the England average, as 3,810 children were admitted in 2022/23 across the entire city region.

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A Greater Manchester GP says one of the reasons children in the region are suffering from more severe respiratory conditions is because of the devastating effects of air pollution, even before they are born. Dr Sinead Millwood, an NHS GP at the Hawthorn Medical Centre in Levenshulme, said: ”From the early stages of development even in the womb, children are one of the most sensitive groups to air pollution because they are still growing and their immune systems are not able to fight it yet.

"It affects their developing brains, reducing their ability to learn. It stunts their lung growth and causes and exacerbates asthma and lung infections.

"I often see kids with these preventable illnesses and wish our leaders would take the action needed to address this.”

According to Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs research, some parts of Manchester are 1.3 times the current UK legal limit and more than five