This is from the Guardian today, 22/5/14 and it’s based on a
survey by The College of Emergency Medicine. As you probably know, I’m a big
fan of their work.
I’m a big fan of this, because it confirms articles I’ve
written before which have used evidence to show that people at Accident and
Emergency departments are not ‘time wasters’, attending with minor ailments.
I’d go further; the small number of attendances that could
have been dealt with at a G.P.’s surgery – how were the patients to know before
they learnt what the problem was at A and E?
The arguments that patients were time wasters came from
administrators and politicians who were trying to deflect blame away from
themselves for underproviding A and E capacity.
And some lazy bad Doctors.
Have you tried attending an A and E recently?
College of
Emergency medicine says only one in seven cases at emergency departments are
non-urgent
theguardian.com, Thursday 22 May 2014 06.57
BST
One in
seven people who attend A&E could be dealt with by a GP but the rest are justified
in going to an NHS emergency department, new research suggests.
The College
of Emergency Medicine found that 15% of people who attended A&E departments
could be treated in the community rather than as an emergency case in hospital.
"[But]
the fact that only 15% of attendees at emergency departments could be safely
redirected to a primary care clinician without the need for emergency department
assessment is a statistic that must be heeded by those who wish to reconfigure
services," said Dr Clifford Mann, president of the college.
The figure
equated to 2.1 million patients who come through the doors of emergency
departments every year, the college spokesman said. Children with minor
illnesses were among them.
The finding
prompted the college to renew its calls for the establishment of GP centres
within emergency departments.
The college
argues that emergency health services are facing a shortage inspecialist
doctors, rising numbers of people attending centres and a lack of accessible
and effective alternatives to A&E.
"Providing
a more appropriate resource for the 2.1 million patients represented by this
figure would substantially decongest emergency departments," said Mann.
"Decongesting
emergency departments is key to relieving the unprecedented levels of pressure
placed upon them and improving patient care."
Seperately,
Sky News said a freedom of information request had revealed that hundreds of
thousands of patients were being sent home from hospital in the middle of the
night, despite a promise to cut down on the practice.
More than
300,000 people had been discharged from hospitals between 11pm and 6am since
2012, an average of 400 a night. Many of them were elderly, giving rise to concerns
that vulnerable people may be unsafe or struggle to get home at unsociable
hours.
The
figures, uncovered through Freedom of Information requests by Sky News, revealed
that in almost half of cases the proportion of patients discharged overnight
also increased.
The NHS has
in the past been accused of persisting in the widespread practice to help free
up beds for other patients.
In 2012 Sir
Bruce Keogh, NHS England's medical director, called on hospitals to reduce the
number of patients being discharged overnight. "It is simply not fair to
be sending people home late at night. We will look at this."
Dr Mike
Smith, chairman of the Patients Association, told Sky News: "They have got
people in A&E chomping at the bit, lying in corridors, they have got to be admitted
and they have no beds.
"It's
for the convenience of staff and the person they are admitting but at the gross
detriment to the person they are chucking out."
A spokesman
for NHS England told Sky News: "Discharging patients at night without
appropriate support is unacceptable, particularly if a patient is vulnerable."
Jamie Reed
MP, Labour's shadow health minister, criticised the prevalence of the issue.
"Hospitals are operating above safe levels. Ministers promised to put an end
to this practice two years ago but it's getting worse. It's further proof you
can't trust the Tories with the NHS."
What all this shows is that all those 'clever' managers who shut wards, closed hospitals, merged and shut Accident and Emergency Departments were just creating more and more problems.
Neil Harris
(a don’t stop till you drop production)
By the way, if you are a little bored or listless – why not
take a look at my other Blog;
Help Me Sort Out St Peters!
X helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
