Top consultant warns against routine surgery at weekends

[Northerner]

Hospital care will suffer if hospitals are forced to stay open at weekends for routine treatment, the leader of Britain's consultants warns today.

Responding to proposals from the Department of Health that the NHS should be run like Tesco, the chairman of the British Medical Association's consultants committee, Paul Flynn, says standards will fall and costs will rise.

Tesco can raise profits to pay for extra opening hours whereas the NHS has to work within a fixed a budget, he points out. Death rates in NHS hospitals have been shown to increase at weekends when fewer senior medical staff are on duty.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...inst-routine-surgery-at-weekends-8505822.html

 

[LeeLee]

Um... Tesco has rotas, so that there are senior staff on duty every day. The same COULD apply to NHS consultants, but they would raise all kinds of objections. Might interrupt the golf!

 

[Northerner]

Um... Tesco has rotas, so that there are senior staff on duty every day. The same COULD apply to NHS consultants, but they would raise all kinds of objections. Might interrupt the golf!

We would need a lot more staff though (which would be no bad thing), but I doubt this government would make that kind of investment, just expect people to work more hours. It does seem silly though that all these facilities should be left underused at weekends - they still have many of the overheads, it's not as though they switch off the lights and turn down the heating for the weekend!

 

[trophywench]

Didn't Gerry Robinson try something like this at that hospital where they made that telly prog a few years back? Actually once all the staff got talking to each other, it worked a lot better afterwards.

 

[Northerner]

Didn't Gerry Robinson try something like this at that hospital where they made that telly prog a few years back? Actually once all the staff got talking to each other, it worked a lot better afterwards.

Yes, there was a huge amount of resistance - especially from the snooty 'superior' consultants - but he did get there in the end. There was an article about Gerry the other day:

http://www.diabetessupport.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?t=34799