Tag Archives: hospital
Family GPs are ordered to cut number of patients referred to hospital to earn extra cash
- Fears patients are having to bear the brunt of NHS ‘efficiency savings’
PUBLISHED: 00:02, 2 May 2012 | UPDATED: 08:31, 2 May 2012
Family doctors are being ordered to slash the numbers of patients they send to hospital to earn extra cash.
Six out of ten GPs said they face ‘inappropriate’ pressure to refer fewer patients and potentially deny them the best care.
The controversial scheme can pay out almost £9,000 a year to surgeries.
It started last May when ministers brought in a series of targets enabling GPs to be rewarded for cutting the number of patients sent to hospital specialists or A&E departments.
However, a poll of 667 doctors found that 60 per cent were facing ‘inappropriate demands’ from managers.
92-year-old waited 38 hours for medical help for her gashed leg
Despite repeated calls for help from her carers and family
Published on Saturday 28 April 2012 06:00
A FRAIL 92-year-old woman who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease had to wait 38 hours for medical assistance after she was left with blood pouring from a gashed leg.
Despite repeated calls for help from her carers and family, Irene Roden was left alone by emergency services, who said her injury was not a high priority.
Now health officials are investigating why nurses using a call-out system for the elderly took so long to respond to Mrs Roden’s injury.
NHS patients encouraged to give feedback about care on revamped website
Patients in Shetland are being encouraged to write about their experiences of health care, good and bad, on NHS Shetland’s revamped website which has just gone live.
In future some patients and carers may be invited to tell their stories on tape, video or in person to the NHS board, which manages health services in Shetland.
The new independent feedback system, called Patient Opinion, started in a low-key way in January, prompting only six responses so far by email, phone and letter. Five were complimentary and the other conveyed ideas for improvements.
Patient Opinion is a non-profit service independent of NHS Shetland and the NHS which confidentially handles each “story” about a person’s experience of the NHS, including what was good and what could have been better.
