You can't come in both for waits and for sick patients. Mind you, many waits
can be avoided by encouragement of time management- when things get busy,
refer early; anything primary care triage to GP. Provides a better service
too (patients needing admission get a bed earlier; primary care patients
don't have to wait and get seen by a specialist). Bit more expensive to the
trust in terms of bed occupancy and cancelled elective work, but ultimately
it is a senior managerial decision whether to fund better A and E staffing
or not to (risking this happening) Ultimately, you can't refuse point blank
to come in for waits, though (not good for staff morale). And once or twice
a year is acceptable. Any more, and they've not staffed for variance in
activity and it becomes an inefficient use of consultant training and
expertise.
One solution I've heard of is having a pool of doctors who'll come in at
half an hour's notice, clear the waits and then go (for a pretty high hourly
rate)- anyone exploring this?
Matt Dunn
Warwick
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