Health leaders in Yorkshire are considering options for running an emergency department without dedicated consultants.
Scarborough Hospital, which is run by York Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust, has long struggled to recruit emergency medical consultants, commonly known as A&E consultants, and is exploring options to make its services sustainable. Senior clinicians believe a new model can be devised whereby patients could initially be seen by “advanced clinical practitioners”, who have typically trained as nurses or paramedics, but then passed on to the specialty consultant in the relevant department more quickly.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine has raised concern over the proposal, describing it as a “highly risky strategy”.
Full story in The Health Services Journal 21 March 2016