DOCTORS at Queen's Park Hospital today assured parents that their children are still safe following the death of meningitis victim Ethan Smith.

But they revealed that extra training to help doctors and nurses to spot serious illness brought in since the toddler's death from meningicoccal septacaemia two years ago is part of a national programme, and not as a result of the tragedy.

The Blackburn hospitals trust recently admitted Ethan, from the Infirmary area of Blackburn, would probably have lived if he had been properly cared for at the unit on Christmas Day and paid compensation to his family.

His family criticised the senior house officer, a newly registered doctor, who failed to test for meningitis, and claimed nursing staff had been lax and uncaring.

Consultant paediatricians Dr Claire Smith and Dr Chris Fossard today spoke out in defence of the children's medical unit -- but refused to talk directly about Ethan's case.

Dr Smith, who has also worked at Booth Hall and Pendlebury hospitals, said: "It's a good unit and a caring team.

"We do everything in our power to reduce the risk of things going wrong. Things rarely go wrong, but when they do we discuss it and try to learn anything we can to reduce the chance of it happening again."

All staff now complete a one-day course on recognising serious illness in children within a week of starting at the unit. The course was brought in as part of a national programme, not as a result of Ethan's death.

Dr Fossard said: "It may seem obvious, but newly registered doctors have only had eight weeks' in paediatrics during the whole of their medical training.

"Undergraduate medical training is very basic. You have to train in whatever speciality you choose once you begin the job, so post-graduate training is very important." Doctors later complete a more intensive and practical course including resuscitation of babies and older children.

Other recent innovations include a two-bed children's high dependency unit and a dedicated ambulance service to transfer seriously ill youngsters to other hospitals. Nevil Barnett, nurse manager, has also helped develop better nursing practices at the unit.

The doctors said they could not discuss Ethan Smith's case, but said the disease, which develops much faster than ordinary meningitis, could be very hard to spot in its early stages. Dr Smith said: "Young children can develop an illness much, much more quickly than adults." For example, children with meningicoccal septacaemia can go from being well to dead in only a few hours."

Meningitis cases are also fairly rare -- only about a dozen of last year's 1,300 admissions were meningococcal septacaemia.

Almost ten times as many children were admitted with fits and fever, symptoms Ethan also exhibited.

Jacqui Helleur, Ethan's grandmother, said today she didn't think sufficient was being done to prevent other tragedies, and said that, if lessons had been learnt, perhaps Kourtney Burns would also still be alive.

The Oswaldtwistle youngster died of meningitis last year after being sent home from Blackburn Royal Infirmary's casualty unit.

She said: "I don't think a one-day course is enough. What can anyone learn in a day?"