HEALTH FORUM

> PATIENTS who dial 999 may no longer be taken to hospital by paramedics
under
> a plan prompted by hospital closures and loss of GP cover. The Scottish
> Ambulance Service is looking to create a new breed of ambulance personnel
> who do not respond to emergencies but, once patients are stabilised,
shuttle
> them to hospital. Introducing these advanced care teams would allow the
> most highly trained ambulance staff - paramedics and technicians - to
remain
> in communities ready to deal with the next casualty.
>
> Adrian Lucas, chief executive of the Scottish Ambulance Service, said the
> plan was a response to the closure of community hospitals, which is
> increasing journey times to wards, and an overhaul of GP services which is
> expected to leave paramedics mopping up more patients outside office
hours.
> Advanced care teams, proposed for the more remote parts of Scotland, would
> transfer patients after diagnosis and treatment by paramedics and
ambulance
> technicians. They would move only lower-risk patients who do not require
an
> accident and emergency level of care en route.
>
> Mr Lucas said, they will be experts at looking after patients in transit.
> What they will not be trained in is all the diagnosis stuff and handling
> emergency stuff but they will be able to deal with all the post care
aspects
> of that. I know we will get people saying why cant you take me now, we
> have to wait another hour for the (other) vehicle, but if you take
patients
> into hospital at 2am not much happens to them except they go to bed.
>
> However, David Sedgwick, consultant general surgeon at the Belford
Hospital
> in Fort William, questioned whether paramedics had the necessary level of
> training to make such decisions. He said: I think you will find there
will
> be a lot more wrong calls.
>
> Dr Michael Foxley, a Fort William GP, felt the public would not welcome a
> secondary level of ambulance care. He said: At the moment, there are
> hospitals and there are GPs in the Highlands and they have been in place
for
> last the 80 to 100 years. What really should happen is they should try and
> keep the existing system in place.
> He added that patients with lower limb fractures could suffer
complications
> where if you do not get urgent surgery you lose your leg.
>
> Dr David Murray, a GP in Lochcarron, said the idea sounded good on paper
> but questioned how the Scottish Ambulance Service would recruit staff for
> the advanced care teams.
>
> However, Gary Coutts, the new chairman of Highland NHS Board, said the
plan
> appeared logical. He said: We are going to have to spend a lot of time
> reconfiguring services to give people better care when they need it and
this
> seems a step in the right direction.
>
> Full story:
> http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/13855.html
>
>

>akira@buffalo.com (akira) wrote in message
>news:...
> 4-28-04 pizza driver Jeff Bond jbond@nowhere.com shot 3 times.
>
> it was 10pm fri. he was walking to the door w/3large pizzas and a
> 24 year old girl open with a shotgun told jeff to undress the
> and then shot him 3 times and then shot his dick off.
>
>
> this should be in the sunday paper.