I see no point in ANY patient with possible early flu seeing ANY doctor at
all!. The NICE guidelines make it very clear that face to face contact is
not expected. We will soon have in place a 'patient group directive' that
will allow the pharmacist to dispense relenza to the appropriate people,
without GP involvement.
This will only work if both A&E, Primary Care, NHS Direct and OOH services
give consistent messages, backed up with a substantial local and national
media campaign that says if you think you flu, the only NHS contact to make
is with your local pharmacist!
Lets work together.
Dr John Apps www.neashamroadsurgery.co.uk
Basics North East www.basicsnortheast.fsnet.co.uk
Some days you are the bug, some days you are the windscreen!
-----Original Message-----
From: The list will be of relevance to all trainees including undergraduates
and [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of John R PASKINS
Sent: 30 November 2000 14:55
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Relenza and A & E Workload
I have a lot of sympathy with comments from dannymac. I think some of us
have tried to negotiate with our colleagues in primary care about patient
access to their own GP and have found it very hard work. JP
>>> Martin Hargreaves <[log in to unmask]> 11/29/00 10:55pm
>>>
I know you all work hard in A & E - (I used to do it myself at one time and
I know it is busier now ) BUT it just isn't correct to imply that no-one
else works as hard as you do and that the rest of us all take long weekends
every week:
Just one pair of figures: locally over the New Year holiday the A&E
workload was up 180% on an average weekend, at the same time the GP co-op
workload was up by 450% and they were seeing 45 patients per hour, paying
for the extra staff needed out of their own pockets.
Wouldn't it be more fun if we all had some appreciation of each-others work
and even (perish the thought) tried to co-operate in our own and the
patients' interests from time to time rather than stokeing up the tired old
prejudices?
Martin Hargreaves
Colchester
At 22:22 29/11/00 +0000, you wrote:
>Colleagues
>Having read the NEJM article and the deliberations of NICE it appears that
>Relenza will now become part of the armamentarium of the physicians, and
>very quickly too. The publications stress the importance of giving the
>medication during the first 24 to 36 hours.
>I suspect the majority of the patients will roll up to their friendly A & E
>dept. as opposed to trying to negotiate the receptionists and the DDS. I
>suslect this will be more evident during the Xmas and New Year period when
>everything grinds to a halt apart from A & E.
>Has anyone in the speciality looked into the resource implications or is it
>another chore the
>A & E serfices will have to take on. Have the bods at NICE spoken to the
>anyone from the speciality
>Danny McGeehan
>Staffs
>
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