I have some sympathy with the letter to
The BerwickshireDr Ross Cameron of NHS Borders must be one of the few people in Scotland who admire the current Out of Hours arrangements (OOH).
Only 11 % of of GPs think the service has improved, Audit Scotland believes OOH is unsustainable and one in five users of the service were dissatisfied. Now we hear that high risk patients are more likely to die the longer the ambulance trip.
In the old days when you needed medical help during the night you called your local GP. He either gave you advice or came to see you; if you needed an ambulance he sent for one. That is a good system and one that still operates in some blessed areas.
Under OOH you ring a call-handler at NHS24, who will pass you to a Nurse Adviser at NHS24, who may pass you to a Nurse Adviser at NHS Borders, who may pass you to a doctor who may then give you advice, ask you to drive through the night to an emergency centre, or in extremes travel 30 miles to see you - if you have not by then expired. That is a poor system.
Patients have no difficulty in seeing the difference between one and the other. Why can Dr Cameron not see it.
I am not sure who Dr Cameron is unless he is Dr Finlay's partner from a Beeb series of years ago but I am with the writer judging purely from my own experience of a massive nosebleed last February. And while the sauce flowed I could hear the wife being passed on from Nurse Adviser, to Depute Nurse Adviser, to Senior Nurse Adviser and finally to duty Doctor-I heard my date of birth at least 5 times, our address, a summary of past conditions, and finally, with the greatest of reluctance-or so it seemed through my red mist, the non-urgent ambulance was dispatched to take my remains to the BGH. Its lack of urgency included refusal to navigate Kirk Lane and I was forced to stagger through mud and drizzle (at one am) to the Village Hall where the NUA was parked.Not the best night of my life
At the time I felt it might by the last.
Habitual bloggees will know the story.(February Archives reveal all in, literally, gory detail)
Labels: Bloody Nose, Merse
