RE: NHS DIRECT
Fear not Mike, yours is not a lone voice in the wilderness! Personally I am
fed up with hearing my colleagues whinging and whining about NHS Direct.
Like it or not, it is now part of our health care system and we [in A&E and
GP land] should be looking for opportunities to use it to our advantage. In
North Derbyshire we have worked closely with NHS Direct since its inception
and as a result I believe we have made some very positive progress eg
redirecting all calls for general medical advice coming to A&E to NHS Direct
without our staff ever becoming involved and using NHS Direct to re-direct
our "category blue" patients to more appropriate health care thus freeing
the A&E staff to deal with genuine A&E problems.
Some of the scare stories and anecdotes appearing on the list implying NHS
Direct sends all its callers to A&E via emergency ambulance remind me of the
medical SHO claiming "bloody A&E, they just shunt all chest pain to the ward
for us to sort out". Those of us working in A&E know that for every patient
admitted there are many more who are seen, investigated and discharged.
Likewise, for every patient advised to attend A&E by NHS Direct, there are
many more directed to self care or other more appropriate agencies. Of
course, the occasional mistake will happen [and we never make mistakes in
A&E do we!]. As Mike Lambert says, if you receive an "inappropriate" patient
via NHS Direct there are blue forms available to bring the error to their
attention so that the incident can be investigated and if necessary
protocols amended. Surely this is a preferable and more constructive
approach than some of the petty "NHSD bashing" that has recently appeared on
the list
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