> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Chambers [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 25 March 2002 20:58
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: MIU problems
>
>
> Here goes but somebody has to say it......
I reproduce the following verbatim, without comment, perhaps with a wry
smile:
>>START<<
A few days ago on the local news programme "Midlands Today" a local
councillor was interviewed about "feared downgrading" of Solihull Hospital
Accident & Emergency Department to a nurse staffed MIU....
"If I get sick or am injured I want to see a doctor, not a nurse"
This repeated three times, followed by a few other choice comments and then
the cracker:
"It's like asking the stewardess to step into the cockpit and fly the
plane."
>>END<<
Question is.....do you think this will result in a net gain or loss of votes
for him
at the next local election?
I haven't plucked up the courage to ask any staff in our department for "ice
and a slice please" yet. Probably not worth the risk.
There is a serious point here: it's public perception that seems to count.
Interestingly the suggestion that a nurse provided service is "inferior"
rather than "different" tends to come from the local opposition politicians
and not from the doctors.
Compare this to the behaviour of the anaesthetists ~10 years ago when it was
suggested that the UK should move toward the US model of Nurse Anaesthetists
overseen by fewer (Doctor) Anaesthesiologists.
Don't hear much about nurse anaesthetists in the UK these days do you?
Of course the strongest argument that the RCA had was that it was actually
more expensive to run the nurse anaesthetist type of service. Please note
the "was". Things have changed now that trainee doctors cost more.
Perhaps the anaesthetists should be girding their loins again...
Jeremy Harrison
Warwick
PS If you enjoyed the Bart Simpson blackboard spoof (mine) this might amuse
(less than 40kB jpg file only, if you can't read the writing try turning
your monitor brightness up):
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/harrisondom/Titanic-NHS.jpg
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