[lettie]

I have never dealt directly with them, but we get a lot of referrals from them, most of which are completely unnecessary. It is difficult trying to get a history from somebody over the telephone. Most people are very wishy- washy about their symptoms. If you mention a symptom to someone they suddenly have it, even if they have never mentioned it before. It happens where I work all the time. It's good to hear that they can react well in an emergency but all we see are the hundreds of needless admissions to us and I'm not exaggerating. We have just over 3700 deliveries per year but well over 12000 admissions to labour ward roughly 3.5 admissions per person. Bear in mind that some people don't attend until they are actually in labour therefore only have 1 admission and a small number of people who do attend before labour are genuinely in need of admission. The majority of people we see could be treated by the GP or take 2 paracetamol at home.