----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr Matthew Cooke"
Subject: Re: Reforming emergency care
> The study on streaming quoted in REC will be published shortly in EMJ. It
> simply put one doctor in a cubicle, with a desk but no couch, and he only
> saw the walking wounded.
> This system reduced the risk of waiting over one hour by 30% ( and did not
> worsen waits for other patients).
Yes we have done precisely this, but I remain, like Goat, slightly cynical.
Targeting minors patients will clearly reduce long waits but won't this be
at the price of slightly less resources for the critically ill? Isn't it a
bit like targeting the 18 month waits for elective surgery, and the impact
this has had upon the shorter but more critical waits for urgent cancer and
coronary surgery. Still, government are pushing us down this route, and
there's no doubt streaming does reduce congestion overall, if you've got the
space and staff to do it. You've got to protect that cubicle/s from trolley
invasion, and putting a great big desk in it seems to do the trick!
Adrian Fogarty
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