Am I the only one perplexed by this sentiment? Perhaps it's a DGH phenomenon but I don't have time to go ringing around other hospitals to arrange fracture clinic appointments and neither do any of my SHOs or nurses. In any case many of our patients are disappearing off to Europe or North America with their fractures which makes this impractical. What is the problem with letting them arrange their own follow up when they get home? Many have complex travel plans, they know their home units and GPs etc. If they do turn up to their local A&E surely they can then be rapidly triaged to fracture clinic at that point - and this is where a "standard" could be set. Surely this is simpler than you trying to arrange distant follow-up for them, which I can well imagine will take some considerable time. I know we work in a "national" health service, but until such time that I can click an icon on my computer screen in London which magically arranges a fracture clinic in Lancashire, then I'm not doin' it!! There's only so much mollycoddling of patients I can offer in this business, and being a travel agent is not something I'm happy to take on at the moment!!

Stressed overworked consultant in inner city department

----- Original Message -----

From: [log in to unmask]>rmcglone

Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2001 2:56 PM

Subject: Patients Charter for Tourists

I'm not sure whether I've raised this topic before.

Between 15 -20 % of our patients in A&E Lancaster / Kendal are tourists to the area. If they are unfortunate enough to attend with a fracture the A&E nursing staff usually attempt to book an appointment in the fracture clinic in the hospital from their home area for follow-up.

When we phone the A&E department we are not always successful in getting an appointment over the phone. Some departments refuse to give an appointment over the phone. The patients then have to wait in their local A&E department. If they are lucky they are sorted out with a Fracture Clinic Appointment at Triage, otherwise they have to wait to see a doctor!

We send a photocopy of the A&E and X rays with the patient. However, even this isn't always done by other A&E departments.

Perhaps it's time we had a patient's charter for tourists.

Could the BAEM Handbook not have a telephone number for each A&E department as a contact point for making follow up appointments?