THE death of little Lewis Jackson is a tragedy in itself.

But while the fate of this desperately-ill four-year-old from Clitheroe may have been no different had an intensive care bed been available for him closer to East Lancashire - instead of the nearest being 80 miles away at Stoke - the anguish of his parents is not lessened as a result.

Nor, we think, is public concern.

For while it may also be that the shortage of specialist care beds at the time of Lewis's need was, as health chiefs point out, compounded by staff sickness levels in hospitals where they are based, his case raises other questions.

Lewis, we accept, suffered from a combination of unfortunate circumstances - of all nearby intensive care beds being full and fewer being available anyway because of the 'flu bug - but what is of concern to us is not this being a consequence of rare misfortune.

Rather, it is the fact that such events here in the North West are not uncommon.

Other seriously ill patients have been shuttled around the region, and, at times, even beyond it, in the quest for vital specialist treatment.

And even accepting that the health service's resources are finite, particularly when it comes to the provision of high-cost and labour intensive facilities such as these beds, it is the frequency of these events which suggests that the North West has too few of them.

It is time, then, for a thorough and open review of the levels of intensive care bed provision in our region, matched with the facts on how many patients have had to travel beyond their nearest intensive care unit for treatment and how often this is occurring.

For, as this latest tragic instance implies, getting an intensive care bed can, at times, be a lottery for patients.

And even if that risk cannot never be fully eliminated, it is vital, surely, to do everything possible to reduce it to the minimum.

Lives are at stake every time, after all.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.