02.12.10
Hospitals need more trained doctors at weekends
A new survey from the Royal College of Physicians of the way care for very ill patients is managed in England, Wales and Northern Ireland recommends that hospitals need to increase the availability of senior doctors in acute admissions units, particularly at weekends. Previous studies show that a consultant-delivered service is best for patient treatment and recovery.
Care for very ill patients has improved significantly over the past few years due both to the introduction of acute medical admissions units in most major hospitals, and a major increase in the number of consultant physicians specialising in acute medicine to assist other hospital specialists working in acute medical admission units. Despite these changes, many patients are only seen once per day in a formal ward round instead of the recommended two daily ward rounds. In three quarters of the acute medical admissions units accepting patients directly from GPs, the unit runs out of beds, so the report recommends that there are sufficient beds in future to ensure that very ill patients gain appropriate access to acute admissions wards.
Representatives of 126 hospitals from 109 different Trusts or equivalents completed the survey – 114 from England, 6 from Northern Ireland and 6 from Wales. The survey did not cover Scotland.
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