Our local PCT wants us to explore locking the doors to the A/E Department to stop patients from coming in with conditions that they think (local gp's) do not need to be seen. There would be a telephone outside and the patient could thus be triaged form inside without any face to face contact. This seems a radical way of dealing with the 4 hour wait but perhaps not without some disadvantage for the patient.
Does anyone on the list work in a department which has locked doors. Does this cut down the waiting time for those that do get in ? How do those turned away feel?
JP
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