----- Original Message -----
From: "Al-Asfoor" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
>In my humble opinion, minor illnesses should not present to A&E
departments.
>and if they did, the A&E triage will assess if they will be treated in
the
>department when the doctors are ready or they will be redirected or
advised
>to visit primary care centres immediately or sometime later.
>This process has a second part which is "public education" through
media and
>other ways. At the end this is all under evaluation and we are looking
for
>the outcome.
Dr. Mohamed Al-Asfoor,
I have to say this hits the nail on the head. Public education surely
must be the ultimate way to reduce costs, waiting times and generally
improve all aspects of Pre-Hospital care. If the government want to
improve the NHS with long term stategies then it could do no worse than
implement some sort of "medical " lesson into the National Curriculum.
This would involve learning how to do CPR, basic First Aid, commonsense
in the calling of GP's, Ambulances and when to visit the A&E department,
and anything else that might be relevent to pre-hospital care.
I would have to say that about 50% of all 999 calls I go to are not
emergencies ( that's purely an approximation and not based on any audits
or suchlike) and similarly, half the calls to out of hours GP's are
probably calls that could wait until surgery hours. As for A&E, you tell
me, has anyone ever done a study on the necessity of the visits of the
general public to thier local A&E department.
This is all my opinion and I would be interested in the List's views on
the subject.
Mark Parsons - Paramedic, Sussex
PS If you could stop all non-necessary visits + drink related cases, all
you A&E docs could get a good nights sleep :))
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