Are all hospital admissions for acute gastroenteritis necessary?

Consecutive hospital admissions of 300 children under 2 years old with gastroenteritis were studied to establish the reasons for the request for admission, treatment practices before admission, and the severity of illness. Symptoms were mostly mild. Inappropriate treatment at home was unusual but 87 (29%) had received none before being admitted. In 66 cases (22%) more than one reason was given for referral and 61 (20%) were referred in part for non-medical reasons. Hospital stay was often longer than necessitated by the severity of the illness alone. Redeployment of resources to fund assessment centres on the paediatric ward and more community nursing teams would allow many more of these children to be nursed safely at home.