The list seems to have ben silent regarding the publication of the
latest audit commission report on A&E so here goes.
Yet again, there seems to have been an absence of anyone 'influential'
from the A&E world defending our speciality in the media against some
of the inaccuracies of the audit commission report. I listened to BBC
radio 4 on the morning of the report publication and it was left to
the opposition spokesman on health to fight our corner and state that
departments were under pressure because there just simply are not
enough beds in the rest of the hospital, which jams up departments. In
other news bulletins on the TV and on the web, I didn't see any one
from BAEM or a senior (A&E, not gen. medicine) consultant etc being
interviewed. The Andrew Foster from the audit commission told radio 4
that really, it was poor 'micro' management that was at fault, I think
implying the departments themselves-this is echoed throughout in the
report. Buried away in the report is the odd admission that actually
if all the cubicles in A&E are full, then it is very diifficult to
assess new patients. The report feels that this is only a problem
occaisionally-more like everyday in most departments surely.
The press statement on the BAEM website is watery and I think that yet
again, a major opportunity to publicly fight our corner from within
the speciality has been lost. Those in infuence within the speciality
must have known that this report was coming out and a vigorous and
very public defence should have been mounted. If this wasn't thought
to be necessary given the report's highly critical main findings, then
perhaps the report is right and we as a speciality just cannot get our
act together, whether thrombolysing the right patients or organising
staffing. Any one else feel mounting despair out there?
Francis Andrews FFAEM
Liverpool
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