15.09.10
Scottish ambulances making savings
The ambulance service in Scotland has been able to make savings after its ambulance crews have begun to reduce the amount of patients they take to hospital. Often the crews will arrive to find patients who are not in need of hospital treatment, but can be treated by the crews at the scene. Dr George Crooks, medical director of the Scottish Ambulance Service, told the Herald newspaper: “Often the patients were saying to us ‘I don’t want to go to hospital’ and our paramedics were trying to persuade them. He continued: “What we will never do is leave a patient at home where there is a potential risk that the underlying illness may deteriorate or if they have sustained an accident or injury where there is a chance their condition may deteriorate insidiously over time.”
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