Yes, in Brentford they have opened a new private casualty. Basically you can go and pay a £29 consultation fee, then the costs go up if you need treatment. This unit deals with minor injuries and in not intended to deal with major trauma. The reasoning is that we have choices in any other healthcare sector apart from casualty, so they are trying to provide more of a choice for people who want it. Critics say that the unit is staffed by poaching NHS staff, from an already stretched service. This unit say that if minor things can be treated in their unit, then it will free up casualty centres to deal with major trauma and reduce NHS casualty waiting times. :-/
Personally I am at the moment undecided as to wether this will work, and it will be evaluated in the future. When you examine casualty figures, many people present there with problems that can be dealt with by their GP and this means increased waiting times for people who genuinely need the service.
On Accident and Emergency as a student in 1989, I had the pleasure of treating a fella for a cut to his finger. I put a plaster on it. Believe it or not, that's a true story :
__________________
Never put off until tomorrow what you can avoid altogether.
The views expressed here are my own and not necessarily those of my family, friends, employer, this site, my neighbours, hairdresser, dentist, GP, next door's dog or anyone else who knows me..
