Medical Centres in crisis? From #Healthwatch Wokingham We have seen on the news, a number of hospitals cancelling planned appointments and operations to cope with the huge demand at A&E. Last June Healthwatch Wokingham Borough published a report from a two week survey of the A&E department at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, and found that Wokingham residents alone are attending A&E a staggering 26% more than in the previous year. People are clearly using A&E and other health centres for non-urgent matters. Unfortunately its a growing problem! The new Urgent Care Centre in Bracknell is facing similar problems. The centre treats minor injuries and minor illnesses that require immediate assessment and treatment but do not require care in an A&E Department. However, people are using it like a GP surgery and they are also receiving inappropriate referrals from GPs, pushing visitor levels to over 140% of planned capacity. There are so many places we can get support from.... Think about where you could get help when ill! Advice - theres a lot at your fingertips. Use the internet and use a symptoms checker Call NHS 111 - 24 hrs a day, 365 days a year. You get advice from a medical professional straight away! And calls are free from landlines and mobile phones. See a medical practitioner Pharmacists have private consultation rooms, they can give a huge amount of advice as well as your prescription GPs of course Westcall - Out of Hours GP access (you have to go through NHS 111) walk in Health Centres (like in Broad Street Mall, Reading) They provide access to a GP and Nurse 7days a week, 365 days a year, 8am to 8pm. When its Urgent Urgent Care Centre - when its urgent but not live threatening A&E - when its life threatening As you can see - the Urgent Care Centre and A&E are at the bottom on the list...and yet many of the visits they get are not of an urgent nature.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 21:54:04 +0000
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