The emergency care of children should be a seamless service from home to hospital. It is of great importance, not only to the individual child who needs attention, but also for those providing health services. Appropriate, timely and effective management of patients leads to better individual care, quicker admissions, reductions in secondary problems, shorter in-patient stays, fewer nosocomial infections and ultimately less workload for an already overburdened and understaffed service. A well-organized service to receive, triage and care for children will lead to decreased mortality and increased patient and staff satisfaction.