What we are just about to launch here is a system where we have access to GP
appointment slots available over the next few days' at the patient's GP
practice. As they have a 10 minutes per patient, the first hour in a day is
taken up by patients coming from A&E (innapropriate attendenders (what you
think) or primary care patients (what you write)). That is 6 patients from
A&E per GP which actually amounts to a lot of slots when multiplied by the
number of GPs.
Just further beyond the point you are making, I had no valid response from
any GP when asked where about the duty of care (identical with mine or yours
for that matter) finishes. If you phone A&E I have to see you, if you phone
your GP, it seems to me that they HAVE to see you as this is their duty
(Good medical practice, GMC). It may, of course, be the case where the
patient did not care to phone the GP, or phoned but was redirected by a
receptionist ("we can only see you in 3 weeks"). We have dealt with this by
phoning back, at random, some GPs. Extrapolating, one may question the need
of NHS 24 and their intensively and extensively trained staff to deal with
patients after 5 pm when a receptionist can do that, with no training, from
8 to 5...
kind regards,
Tudor
Dr. Tudor Codreanu MSc(Med)
Staff Grade
Accident and Emergency Dept.
Dr. Gray's Hospital
Elgin
tel: 01343 543131 ext 67360
dir: 01343 567360
fax: 01343 552612
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Danny McGeehan [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 10 August 2003 19:30
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Turn them around
>
> Colleagues
> Do any departments have any robust triage or other protocols than I can
> look at regarding Primary Care attedances to A&E. Our numbers are going
> up at a rate of 10% and we are seeing more primary care patients attending
> for one reason or another.
>
> Our orthopods are stating that they will no longer see what they deem to
> be inapropiate A&E referrals.
>
> With Trick and Treat it is obviously becoming easier for the patients to
> access A&E. Basically I want to know if we can turn them around and
> dispatch them back to their GP's and hence would value any comments from
> the list.
>
> Kind regards
>
> Danny McGeehan
>
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