Review of a general practice attachment for accident and emergency training.

Abstract

General practice attachment 215 -and the prioritisation of calls according to the urgency of patient need is introduced, the opportunity exists to improve care across the spectrum of 999 callers. At the most urgent end, appropriately skilled and staffed ambulances can be dispatched without delay. At the less urgent end, there is the opportunity to explore other, possibly more appropriate responses than the current obligatory "lights and sirens" paramedic vehicle. The question of appropriateness of use recedes as not only difficult to measure but also of little relevance. The question becomes: "how can ambulance services best plan the cost effective provision of prehospital care so that varied healthcare needs expressed by the general public through 999 calls receive an appropriate response?" This requires ambulance services to understand their workload and factors which affect all types of demand, not in terms of appropriateness or otherwise, but in terms of patient type and condition, and social as well as clinical need.

A brotherhood of foxes: generalists sticking together

“…Well, perhaps we should roll the clock back and create secondments for EM trainees into general practice. The benefits of such secondments were discussed some years ago, 4,5 in the days when training was more flexible. It could provide EM trainees with valuable insights into the organisation of the modern health service, where around 90% of interactions occur in primary care.…”