Emergency Services Action Team (ESAT)
This is a national group at the DoH charged with monitoring and
analysing emergency admissions (and winter pressures) and reporting
to and advising ministers. The group has recently opened a Web Site
to provide information and invite comments:
http://www.open.gov.uk/doh/esat.htm
One of the matters arising is to report back "from the field". The
group receives regular reports from Trusts and HAs (SITREPS), but
there is no formal reporting mechanism for general practice, apart
from the notification of infectious diseases from a number of key
sites.
Informally, e.g. via GP-UK, there seems to have been a high incidence
of "laryngo-tracheo bronchitis" over Christmas. There has been a high
incidence of bronchiolitis locally but no rise in severe flu-like
illness requiring admission. Is this your impression? Do you have any
suggestions as to how "winter pressures" in general practice may be
quantified (without additional data collection)? Might levels of
prescribing of antibiotics, to be calculated regularly by the PPA on a
district by district basis, give some sort of (albeit retrospective)
measure?
Measuring is one thing, but is there anything we can do about it? Are
there factors locally, such as lack of community social services back
up or inability to arrange short-term nursing home placement, which
result in you admitting patients who you would otherwise look after
yourself. Do you admit patients simply because workload pressures
prohibit regular repeat visiting / follow-up of acutely ill patients?
I would appreciate any comments, either personally or via GP-UK,
which I could then feed back to ESAT. The next meeting is on Tuesday.
Thanks, in anticipation,
Trims.
--
Dr Ian Trimble http://www.sherwood.demon.co.uk/
Sherwood Health Centre
Elmswood Gardens Tel: +44 115 962 4516
Nottingham NG5 4AD Fax: +44 115 985 7899
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