THE College of Emergency Medicine yesterday urged the government to invest in more emergency medicine specialists rather than polyclinics.
Dr John Heyworth, incoming President of the College stated ‘Emergency Departments (A&Es) are the only consistent, reliable and always available source of emergency care and they need to be staffed appropriately.
‘Junior doctors should not be left unsupervised to deal with difficult diagnostic problems. Patients understand and value the role of the Emergency Department.
‘The government needs to invest in healthcare facilities that are proven and popular with patients such as Emergency Departments and out of hours primary care services, rather than new and as yet unproven urgent care centres and polyclinics.
‘The College is absolutely committed to delivering high quality care in all Emergency Departments.
‘Proper staffing of the Emergency Department is the single most important factor in providing a high quality, timely and clinically effective service to patients,’ said Dr Heyworth.
Dr Jonathan Fielden, Chairman of the BMA’s Consultants Committee, supported the call for emergency specialists.
He said: ‘We urgently need more emergency medicine specialists to improve the quality of care for patients.
‘A focused expansion in consultant numbers – not just in emergency medicine but in many other specialities across the NHS – is the best way of ensuring that we achieve our shared ambition of high quality care for all.’
The College of Emergency Medicine is calling on the government to urgently address serious workforce shortages and fund additional Emergency Medicine Consultant positions in hospitals across the UK.
This policy is outlined in their vision The Way Ahead 2008-2012 which was launched today.
The College recommends that Emergency Medicine Consultant posts should increase from 740 to 1,500 by 2012, to ensure each A&E Department has a qualified emergency medicine specialist to lead and supervise care of the highest quality, particularly in the evenings and at weekends when A&Es are at their busiest with sick and injured patients.
Currently only a minority of A&Es have adequate senior staffing.
Evidence has shown that better outcomes are achieved when patients are seen by trained Emergency Medicine Consultants when they arrive at the A&E.
Patients who go to casualty departments require the expertise of a trained specialist in Emergency Medicine to ensure life threatening conditions are diagnosed and treated immediately.
More Emergency Medicine Consultant posts would also ensure that fewer patients would be incorrectly discharged, unnecessarily admitted or kept waiting for unacceptable periods of time.
The current staffing model in hospitals means that the majority of care in A&Es is still delivered by excellent but inexperienced junior doctors.
The College of Emergency Medicine urges the Department of Health, Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts to appreciate that A&Es are the hub of the emergency care system and to recognise the benefits which will result from more positions in UK hospitals for experienced and trained Emergency Medicine Consultants.
