About the future purpose and use of our A & E Departments and their need in future to assess patients within four hours of attending our hospitals.
It is claimed one-third of the people attending emergency centres don’t actually need to … so why are they there?
Well Mr Hunt let’s discuss the reasons why – let us enlighten you!
One of our Waverley Webbers contacted 111 in the days before Christmas due to a small injury he had sustained and which was causing a serious bleed, due to his use of the blood thinning drug -(Warfarin.)
He didn’t race into his nearest A & E Department because he heeded requests not to use those facilities unnecessarily. Instead he contacted 111, resulting in the following advice:
Use your nearest pharmacy to obtain medication to stem the blood flow, but do not stop using the blood thinning drugs.
He used the kitchen cupboard and pharmacy remedies, and continued to seek the help of 111 throughout. After almost 50 hours of constant bleeding, he rang 111 again and was told, that an out of hours doctor could not be called as they were already “inundated” with calls and were not taking any more. He was also told not to use his nearest Acute Hospital’s A & E as it was “at capacity.”
A call to an emergency care centre directed him to another A & E, after its staff learned he had tied an elastic exercise belt as a ligature around his waist in a useless attempt to staunch the blood flow.
More than 50 hours after first sustaining the injury, and severe loss of blood, his wound was stitched at an Acute Hospital in Surrey, and he was later released.
So Mr Hunt – if you contact the Waverley Web we can put you in touch with our contact – and you can be assured he was as keen as you are not to use A & E, but there were no GP’s or Out of Hours doctors available to give him the help he needed, he had no choice.
Or, of course, he could have cut out the middle man and contacted the nearest Undertaker?
No doubt his particular experience was played out in other parts of the country?
300 years of Press Freedom may come to an end due to the Press Regulation now proposed by the Government. However, you can be assured nothing will ever stop Private Eye – and nothing will stop the Waverley Web from this bullying and punitive attempt to prevent us , and others like us, from telling it as it is.
Happy New Year Mr Hunt.