Critically ill children are being turned away from the John Radcliffe Hospital because special intensive care beds have closed.
The Oxford hospital has seven Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU) beds, but one or two are always left empty because of the nursing shortages in Oxfordshire.
One specially trained paediatric nurse is needed to man every 250,000 bed and others are needed to "float" around the ward.
But general manager Gilli Appleby said: "There's only a small pool of qualified nurses across the country and therefore it's difficult to get the right calibre of people coming in.
But she said the situation was improving and new nurses were joining all the time.
The paediatric ITU is a regional centre which often cares for children from outside Oxfordshire. Many suffer from cancer, heart or respiratory problems.
Earlier this year the Oxford Mail revealed adult ITU beds were lying empty due to the nursing shortage.
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