The next government is being called on to more than double the number of consultants working in emergency departments.
The College of Emergency Medicine says every emergency department needs a minimum of ten dedicated consultants to deal with the growing number of patients presenting in A&E.
The current average is 4.2, while the number of patients averages 70,000 to 80,000 per year.
Increasing the number of consultants would guarantee their presence at evenings and weekends, and promote the highest standards of quality and safety.
The college claims that despite the increase in salaries the move would save money in the bigger picture. It would help reduce inappropriate investigations, unnecessary admissions and unsafe discharges.
Dr John Heyworth, president of the College of Emergency Medicine, said: “Emergency care is currently failing to deliver the service which the public expect and deserve. The single most important factor in providing a high quality, timely and clinically effective service to patients is care led by emergency medicine consultants.
“We are concerned that patient outcomes may suffer if this failure to invest in emergency medicine continues.”
The college has also called for a review of emergency care standards in its ‘manifesto’ A matter of emergency. The current target for all emergency care systems to achieve a target of 98% of patients being seen, treated and discharged within four hours is challenging due to understaffing and compromising patient care.
It also wants patients to have one-stop access to effective emergency care. The college supports co-location of the emergency department with other clinicians to provide unscheduled primary care, mental health and other key health services in one secondary care setting. It’s critical of walk-in or urgent care centres which are “largely unsupported by evidence regarding clinical and cost effectiveness. These initiatives have led to a fragmented system with duplication which evidence shows patients find confusing”.
Read the full manifesto.
you need GP’s who can actually do the work of keeping their patients away from Casualty