You tell us why you're joking.
Because GP surgeries are also closed a lot of the time,.
There are many problems that are neither a sprained finger nor bleeding to death. And if the A&E is closed how do you deal with "bleeding to death"?
The one that is closed at night is a few miles away. The next is a lot further.
I'm not quite clear how a walk in centre is going to be more efficient than the sort of GP unit you'd get in the same area? Problem with my GP is the time taken to get an appointment. Not the service the GP provides when you finally get to see one. Basically, not enough GPs.
Well, that or too many old bastards taking up GP's valuable time. Now that Corbyn is the champion of the young, perhaps the country can be cleansed of those old enough to know what Labour is all about.
then there are people like me that went to there doctor a few years ago and came out with a form telling me to go to A&E ...then was on a trolley in a corridor for 14 hours before getting a bed ........
In article , Mark writes
Technically yes, although the definition of austerity isn't generally as universally known as say that for a depression.
They're not. The allocation formula is being reviewed and is currently out for consultation.
Cost effectiveness. In the case of A&Es generally it is recognised that survival rates for severe trauma actually improve if resources and expertise are concentrated in specialist units event though arrival at one of these units may take a little longer to effect. Of course A&Es are being swamped as they have suddenly become an overflow for GP surgeries. That's where many of the problems lie in the NHS. Perhaps as GPs are private business they should be allowed to fail and the NHS should take over primary care.
Because it is safer to have Maternity departments in the big hospitals where they have immediate access to a range of specialties and staff. Ditto A&E.
These larger specialised centres are never going to be 'convenient' for everybody.
Not A&E, but all the maternity units around here closed and everyone was directed to one in Salford (that'd be fun in the rush hour when there has been an accident on the motorway and everything is gridlocked). Within a couple of years that was shut too and everyone sent to Wythenshawe - hard for many to get too and overloaded so it kept closing its doors to admissions!
Glad it only happened after we had had our children.
SteveW
"Trolley"/"corridor"? I thought hospital manager reclassified them as "beds" and "wards" respectively.
Trolleys are ferking uncomfortable anyway ......
This was a purpose-built Maternity Hospital (and not built that long ago).
Exactly.
snip
That's easy. Because there is no way that either service can be provided to modern standards of safety and efficacy to a population of less than about 0.5-1.0 million people.[1] All else is just spin. Although lack of money does concentrate the minds of the managers on not providing intrinsically negligent facsimiles of such services.
[1] And why home birth more than 10min from a big hospital is rather Quixotic. Being there in 10 min if things go wrong probably won't save the baby, but gives the mother a chance.
The population of the UK is a lot bigger than 1M!
For low risk births there's nothing wrong with a homebirth, especially if the mother is more relaxed as a result.
What population did the closed hospital serve, ie what population would have gone to it in preference to the next hospital?
I can see that that would be nice. But if one has an unexpected complication it is nice if one can be in A & E or theatre in ten minutes.
One closed not far from us. The reason given was that there were not enough complications to maintain the required level of competence through practice in the clinical staff.
How about rotating the staff through different hositals to maintain their competence, instead of requiring the very much larger number of patients, families, friends, etc. to make extra journeys at times of great stress.
SteveW
I don't know, since it served a large area.
Which is a good reason for keeping the Maternity Hospital and the A&E open.
Not if they can't be run to acceptable modern standards. It's a good reason for not having home births outside a big city.
They were.
I disagree. My wife had our first child in hospital and really hated it - it was *very* difficult for her. She was far more relaxed at home and the subsequent births went much better.
The opposite.. the UK population can only really a££ord about 50-100 trauma/good A&E centres.
So if maternity are to be close to them you can't have lots of them miles away just because the local population doesn't want to travel a few miles to visit someone. Note visit as in an emergency the patient doesn't need to worry about getting themselves there.
Then you may want to have treatment centres scattered about for minor stuff like the odd stitch, sprained finger, etc. but that really should be done by the GPs and/or walk in centres.
What? Despite all the right-wing propaganda in the gutter press the UK is still relatively well-off as a whole. We can afford these facilities.
!! I wasn't proposing we have lots of them in a small area. In an emergency people do need to be concerned about travelling distance since ambulances are in short supply.
If only such things existed.
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