> My current hospital has this problem fairly sorted. A policy agreed at
> consultant level : should conflict arise over admission from ED,the ED
> consultant or SpR has the right to admit to any bed in the hospital
> (except
> ICU) over the team of the day if required. Should the team subsequently
> wish
> to discharge the patient then they can. Because of this rule all the
> fights
> have long since died and everyone just gets on with sorting the
> patients.
> Its also applied to patients who clearly needs admission, but the team
> registrar is unavailable for hours at a time - all stable patients are
> admitted and sent to the ward if there is a prolonged wait.
My only concern about this (funnily enough it came up in conversation last week, and my colleague wisely pointed out
the risk) is the extension of responsibility for that patient on the ward to the EU senior doctor.
Best wishes,
Rowley Cottingham
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http://www.emergencyunit.com
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