A picture of health : a consultation on changes to healthcare in the London Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich & Lewisham / NHS.

  • Great Britain. National Health Service.
Date:
[2008]
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: A picture of health : a consultation on changes to healthcare in the London Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich & Lewisham / NHS. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    other healthcare professionals. These staff provide assessment, advice and treatment for patients who are not seriously sick or injured but have problems such as broken bones, pains and existing conditions getting worse. Urgent Care Centres can be on hospital sites or in the community. We also think that older people who currently come to A&E could be much better cared for by a special team dedicated to supporting them. A ‘Medical Assessment Service for older people’ located on every hospital site would work with local GPs, community nurses and social services to organise the most appropriate care. So we think we should concentrate specialist emergency and intensive care Doctors on these sites would develop more experience of specialist techniques. They would also be available more frequently to perform emergency surgery and medical care straight away. At the moment, none of our hospitals in Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich and Lewisham have specialist doctors and surgeons available on site all of the time. children’s services © We want to encourage women to have as natural a birth as possible, and to have the choice of a home birth if appropriate. For women who choose to have their baby in a hospital, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has recommended that there should be more senior doctors on the labour wards, not just to look after women in labour, but also to train others and put better systems in place for when they are not available. At the moment, guidance recommends that a senior doctor should be present on the ward for at least 40 hours a week. But we are struggling to meet this standard. By concentrating care on fewer sites, we will be able to more than double the amount of senior doctor presence therefore improving safety for mothers and children, and also provide midwife-led birthing units alongside the doctor-led units. We also want to provide more antenatal (before birth) and postnatal (following birth) care nearer to people’s homes in community settings. Currently, across the four boroughs, 30% of newborn babies that require high dependency or intensive care are transferred to hospitals outside these boroughs, sometimes to hospitals many miles away. One of the key reasons for this is the shortage of staff. By concentrating our services on fewer sites, with more expertise and nie —)