Five preventable child deaths a day in Britain

The president of the Royal College of Paediatricians and Child Health has told The Observer that around 2,000 children in Britain die each year from preventable health problems. She said:

'In Britain there are five deaths of children a day – 2,000 a year – that are preventable and unnecessary if our services perform as well as those of Sweden. The country's children are our future. We should do so much better. This is a major crisis.'

This is a striking example of social harm, which is the focus of the Centre's three year strategic project. A social harm is a harm that affects members of the population that, given existing resources, should be preventable.