Health & Social Services
All communities should have reasonable access to hospitals, however the way we use hospitals has to be changed. It seems to have a hospital in each area providing every service. We have to look how we best use the resources we have currently, money and staff.
For most people the most important department at any hospital is A & E. If you have an instant problem then that is where you are going to go first. Most people who visit A & E leave 4 or 5 hours later with their problem solved. A number of casualties need surgery and overnight or longer care before returning to the community.
So starting from the premise that the A & E department is primarily the most important, there should be an active 24 hour A & E department with at least one theatre and as many beds as required in each community of, say 100,000. (That figure may need to be reviewed when considering large cities). We ought to try and ensure that no-one is more than 1 hour from and A & E department.
Let’s look at the next batch of patients using hospitals, seriously ill patients who require long-term expert care. Take cancer for instance, does it make sense to have cancer specialists in every major hospital or would it make sense for every county to have its very own cancer hospital staffed by the highest qualified cancer specialists available. It would be true, that many cancer patients visit hospitals for very short periods, mainly to have chemotherapy or radiography, this would mean an increase in travelling time for these patients and there families, however the may be offset by the patient getting much better treatment.
So maybe what we are advocating is super-hospitals in each county, supplying the very best in treatment for all kinds of major illnesses.
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