We need better ways to education patients over A&E visits and GP appointments - Yorkshire Post letters
IN response to correspondence on the NHS, there would be more sense in finding better ways to educate people about when to visit their GP, what is urgent enough to warrant a visit to A&E and when a pharmacist could answer any questions.
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Hide AdOnly the other night there was a TV programme about 24 hours in a busy hospital, and there was a young woman visiting A&E with her father, having suffered from a sore throat for five days.
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This wasn’t an emergency but could have been dealt with by her GP, and it was the ideal opportunity to make the point to the viewers. Presumably the nurse wasn’t allowed to say this to the patient –on camera, at least.
I’m sure frontline staff at all our hospitals do their best to make it clear to people that there are alternatives, but when this sort of misinformation is shown on a TV programme it just perpetuates the idea that the local A&E department is there for every little ache and pain.
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Apart from easing the pressure on hospitals, it has to be good for the patient.
Who wants to sit for hours in a hospital waiting room?