This is not a simple discussion as it sounds.
There is a spectrum of behaviour that goes on. Some of the ambulance drivers stick around, faffing about on their devices when they could be out the door.
Some of the emergency departments (rightly or wrongly) are not staffed enough to be filled, which means they have to remain until its possible to go.
Sometimes there is a queue of ambulances that have arrived (perhaps this is a point that could be better considered with a short handover, and that means freeing up 2 ambulances, but that is a difficult discussion and not as simple as it sounds).
Some of the times, the hospitals themselves are on bypass and are not accepting ambulances, which is why they end up going here there and everywhere.
In terms of filtering at the door, that is a tough ask. The triage clerks and nurses aren't there to necessarily determine if they should be there, but rather what category of patient we are dealing with.
GP's are very hard to get into at the moment. A few weeks ago, I was unwell on a Friday. Couldnt get an appointment with a GP on the same day I was calling around, and the weekends are even harder because they dont all operate. I ended up making an appointment for monday (which I cancelled) because my symptoms were flu like, I went and got a covid test (negative) and ended up cancelling my monday appointment because I wasn't feeling up to it.
Im not saying I would have gone to the hospital on Friday, but I can understand why unwell people might take themselves to hospital int he event of not being able to see a GP.
The current climate is making things very difficult for a lot of people.
Its a tough gig. Our community has grown by a significant amount over the last 20 years. I would wager our hospitals are not growing at the same rate, and that we are seeing more people needing to attend because the bugs are getting harder to get over which is why they dont give out antibiotics so much these days.
Health care is tricky. Most of the reasons why things dont move has more to do with liability, than anything to do with best practise, and litigation has made things a bit more difficult than it needs to be.
There is a spectrum of behaviour that goes on. Some of the ambulance drivers stick around, faffing about on their devices when they could be out the door.
Some of the emergency departments (rightly or wrongly) are not staffed enough to be filled, which means they have to remain until its possible to go.
Sometimes there is a queue of ambulances that have arrived (perhaps this is a point that could be better considered with a short handover, and that means freeing up 2 ambulances, but that is a difficult discussion and not as simple as it sounds).
Some of the times, the hospitals themselves are on bypass and are not accepting ambulances, which is why they end up going here there and everywhere.
In terms of filtering at the door, that is a tough ask. The triage clerks and nurses aren't there to necessarily determine if they should be there, but rather what category of patient we are dealing with.
GP's are very hard to get into at the moment. A few weeks ago, I was unwell on a Friday. Couldnt get an appointment with a GP on the same day I was calling around, and the weekends are even harder because they dont all operate. I ended up making an appointment for monday (which I cancelled) because my symptoms were flu like, I went and got a covid test (negative) and ended up cancelling my monday appointment because I wasn't feeling up to it.
Im not saying I would have gone to the hospital on Friday, but I can understand why unwell people might take themselves to hospital int he event of not being able to see a GP.
The current climate is making things very difficult for a lot of people.
Its a tough gig. Our community has grown by a significant amount over the last 20 years. I would wager our hospitals are not growing at the same rate, and that we are seeing more people needing to attend because the bugs are getting harder to get over which is why they dont give out antibiotics so much these days.
Health care is tricky. Most of the reasons why things dont move has more to do with liability, than anything to do with best practise, and litigation has made things a bit more difficult than it needs to be.
"everything you know is wrong"
Paul Hewson
Paul Hewson