[lettie]

We've had threads on Patientline before. Wasn't it Tony Blair who wanted every patient to have access to a tv and phone? Patientline are a private company who own and maintain all of the machines. They are sometimes nigh on impossible to contact, believe me, I have been trying to have our machines repaired and cleaned for the best part of 3 days and can't get hold of anyone to come and do it.

The discharge procedure sounds like it could do with speeding up a bit (it's different where I work). Maybe Grego will be able to explain a bit better as she knows the pharmacy system. The one thing I can say is that pharmacy is as short staffed as everywhere else. They have to stock every single ward, every individual inpatient and discharge prescription, outpatient prescriptions (where the people waiting for them often become abusive). They also deal with the preparation of the specialised baby feeds for NICU and Paediatrics, Parenteral feeds for the adult wards, all intravenous fluids and gases such as O2, CO2, Entonox, Nitrous Oxide and Medical Air.