To all those, who, like me, thought they knew that NHS-direct was a menace,
BEFORE having any first-hand experience with it...
If your GP decides, for some reason, to use the NHS-direct service to
"facilitate" (and PLEASE for give the use of this word in this context) any
contact between patient and out-of-hours service, then I suggest you get a
good book to read. If, as happened to me, you need to get a GP visit out to
a patient who eventually does get approved for a home visit, then you go
through the following torture:
1. Call GP practice and get given NHS Dirct number by answerphone, instead
of good ol' out-of-hours-service number.
2. Call NHS Direct.
3. Hold on the line for a few minutes.
4. Get promised a call back.
5. Wait some more...
6. Get a call back from NHS direct. Give them your details, etc.
7. Get told that you are not in the right area and that they will need to
transfer you.
8. Wait some more.
9. Get told that person who handles your area is not available and will call
you back (by the way, that person is often in the same room anyway).
10. Wait...
11. Call back arrives. Go through story again.
12. Finally get told that you do merit a home visit, which is something you
knew and coulkd have given them a lecture about to begin with, because you
happen to be in the business.
13. Now you can settle down for the usual wait of a few hours for the house
call, which is not that service's fault, because with the kind help of
NHS-Direct, they now seen to have more work to do rather than less (I have
spoken to a few of them).
Now, I know what the "NHS" bit in "NHS-Direct" stands for, but PLEASE won't
somebody tell me how they justify soiling the word "Direct" by attaching it
to that institution...
>From: "Ashok Vaghela" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: NHS Direct
>Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2000 22:37:25 +0100
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>Food for thought
>a + b = ?
>
>a)GPs claim NHS Direct is giving poor advice to patients
>The Daily Mail p.6 (28/3/00) reports that GPs are refusing to publicise NHS
>Direct, the nurse led health service advice line, because they claim it is
>giving poor advice from NHS Direct. Yesterday, family doctors warned that
>the helpline frightens patients, gives them poor advice and results in
>unnecessary 999 calls which wastes NHS resources. The findings in the
>doctor's magazine Pulse revealed that ten per cent had had their advice to
>patients wrongly criticised and around a fifth of GPs said NHS Direct has
>been too quick to advise patients to call 999.
>
>
>b)Yellow cards for NHS
>The Daily Telegraph p.1 (28/3/00) reports that the Health Secretary will
>today announce that £60 million of the £660 million allocated to the NHS in
>the Budget last week will be used for a new quarterly incentive scheme
>aimed at ensuring under-performing hospitals and GPs improve their
>services. Alan Milburn is planning a warning system similar to footballer’s
>yellow and red cards, to reduce waiting times and ensure preparation is
>made for next winter.
>http://www.telegraph.co.uk
>
>
>= ? Concern for A & E?
>
>Open for discussion
>
>Ash.
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