The first thing which caught my eye in this report was -
"The minor injuries service will be nurse led."
I think that this is either a big mistake or a poor choice of words.
I accept the evidence that nurse practitioners can provide as good a standard of
care as SHOs and have therefore no problem with minor injury services being
nurse PROVIDED. However most of this evidence has come from units which are
Consultant LED. At present most of the research base, treatment development, and
teaching has been medically led.
To move towards units which are nurse provided but jointly nurse and doctor led
would be innovative and might be the answer to our patients needs but to go
wholesale for a nurse led service before this model has been shown to work is in
my view a mistake.
I tend to assume that words mean what words say but maybe the DoH thinks that
nurse led means nurse provided and I am worrying about nothing.
Perhaps Matthew can shed some light?
Andrew Hobart
A&E Consultant
Dr Matthew Cooke wrote:
> You may be interested to read the Dept of Health report, Reforming Emergency
> Care, which is launched today and is now available via
> www.doh.gov.uk/capacityplanning
>
> Matthew
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