> I agree. I personally use chaperones for intimate exams
> (female) and any exam from neck down to knees in what I
> "perceive" is a "high risk" individual - under 50, female, no
> accompanying person. Is it reasonable to set the limit at
> under 50?, 10 years older than myself, will I increase it on
> a yearly basis?, pre-retirement will it be 75!, will the F2
> doctors have chaperones for the under 34s?. Its difficult.
>
I think it's a problem. Complaints can come from patients of any age. Similarly being the same gender as the patient is no protection.
Maybe we should be addressing the issue of having only one health care professional in with the patient.
> Bottom line, a chaperone needs to be present at ALL times for
> ALL staff (not just doctors) for ALL patients but we know
> this just isn't practical
For some time now I have noticed that when dealing with patients I often spend about half of my time doing things that could be done by non doctors (writing, making simple telephone calls etc.). Possibly we should be thinking about routine use of physicians' assistants to go in with a doctor on every case, take care of the clerical work, lines and bloods etc. and act as a chaperone at the same time. Potentially both a cost saving and a protection.
Matt Dunn
Warwick
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