Dr Matthew W Cooke wrote:
> Should we not have a definition of A&E department that separates out those
> units that do not have A&E specialists working in them? So what should we call
> the large departments and what should we call the small units? Will we ever
> get a national agreement?
An Accident and Emergency Department is one which provides for -
"The resuscitation, assessment and treatment of acute illness and injury in
patients of all ages by appropriately trained and experienced staff, according
to current national and local standards, and the onward referral of patients as
appropriate. This service will be available continuously 24 hours a day and will
be consultant led."
Patients presenting within the following categories are included:
"acute trauma, usually within two days of injury;
acute pain, unrelieved by simple analgesia;
acute illness;
acute respiratory distress;
acute change in mental status, including alteration of consciousness and acute
confusional states;
patients brought to hospital by emergency ambulance; and
patients appropriately referred ay any other health care professional."
This comes from "The Way Ahead 1998" published by BAEM at the end of last year.
Any hospital or department which cannot provide this service in full is not an
A&E Department.
If a department provides this level of service only to children or only to
adults then it could be called a Childrens A&E Department or an Adult A&E
Department.
If a department is not Consultant led (ie does not have at least one Consultant
in Accident and Emergency Medicine in charge) than it is not an A&E Department.
What then do we call the departments in cottage hospitals which provide part of
this service?
If they deal only with minor injuries then they are Minor Injury Units but some
also provide a self referral service for minor and sometimes major illness.
I suggest that such Departments could be called Departments of Casual Medicine
or "Casualty Departments" for short.
--
Andrew Hobart
SpR in Accident and Emergency Medicine
West Midlands
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