There are a number of things that are not so clear to me about "see and
treat":
1. Who decides (and how) whether a patient should be seen in minors or
majors?
2. If the staff is still the same and the attendances are not reduced, why
should "see and treat" reduce significantly the waiting time?
3. How will you be able to have the full picture of the state of the
Department at any one time, if you do not know what is wrong with the
patients who are still waiting to be seen and treated, and will not be
triaged?
4. If you need a senior doctor to see and treat patients, who will see the
critically ill patients, (particularly out of hours - i.e. nights).
5. What will the nurses in minors do? (Will there be any nurse in minors?)
6. What will the SHOs do?
7. Is there any evidence that triage and division of roles (one triages,
one sees and one treats) is the major responsible for the lengthy waiting
time? Have other possible causes been excluded?
I should be most interested in the opinion of other list members.
M. Della Corte
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