Hi Andy
No is the answer. All ECPs will do is redistribute where the money is spent.
Instead of the A&E taking the burden of some of the injuries or illness
other health care professional will take on this burden. Only problem with
that is the other health professions are not getting the money that was
previously absorbed by the A&E departments.
I believe that it will cost more eventually as there will have to be a whole
bunch of ECPs covering a region rather than one or two nurses in A&E dealing
with the same number of patients in one place - A&E.
A&E visits are increasing. But should we really kick these patients back
into the community or treat them in one designated place which has all the
specialties and investigations available to us.
Personal opinion is that we should re-think A&E departments to integrate GPs
departments, nurse clinics and ECP units. All in one place and safe, nothing
new there then.
Mike
-----Original Message-----
From: Accident and Emergency Academic List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Andrew Webster
Sent: 30 June 2005 13:26
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Taking health care to the patient: Transforming NHS Ambulance
Services
It may just be a slightly cynical thought but will more ECP's going out to
the home actually save money?
As we have seen with NHS direct/ WIC etc it tends to increase demand without
any real proof of impacting on A&E services.
A "medic" coming to your house may be an attractive option for many people,
but it may turn out to cost more. People who previously would have gone to a
WIC/MIU will instead call 999 to wait for their ECP to turn up in their
shiny MPV.
GP's have moved away from doing house visits as far as possible because it
takes more time to drive from house to house compared to seeing
significantly more patients in the GP-COOP centre. There are also the issues
of seeing patients in an inadequate household setting and the security
issues of working on their own.
Perhaps it would be more cost effective to hire a driver to pick up patients
in an MPV to deliver to a GP COOP or A&E department. If the ambulance
control had misclassified the call they could dial 999 to get a 8 minute
response.
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