At 12:35 13/09/06 +0100, Robert Moore wrote:
>The transport issue is an important one - we have no general hospitals in
>Flintshire but two excellent hospitals out of county. However for my
>nearest the last bus _to_ the hospital is at 5 pm and you'd have to get a
>taxi back. It you drive then the car park is extremely expensive. But
>older and infirm patients are more likely to be visited by older and
>infirm partners who must rely on public transport.
>So our cottage hospital is very popular because relatives can visit
>convalescing patients there and the consultants hold regular local
>clinics. But it doesn't solve the problem of visiting the long-term
>seriously ill in the general hospitals.
Yes, geographical distance and transport are important issues, particularly
in low population rural areas but, when it comes to discussing very
specialised services, I can't see that there is any real getting away from
the fact that these services really have to be concentrated in a relatively
small number of centres, which will necessarily be distant from many of the
patients who need those services - and that is true in relation to both
economic and 'quality of care' considerations.
There's nothing magic about medical care services in this respect. One
would not expect to find a specialised expert in servicing Ferraris in
every village and small town in the country - and, indeed, if people
offering such a service were 'on everyone's doorstep', I would be very
suspicious of the specific experience, expertise and resources they had to
offer, even if they were 'very convenient' to get to!
Kind Regards,
John
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Dr John Whittington, Voice: +44 (0) 1296 730225
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