Abstract
I would like to see the reversal of politically motivated changes to the delivery of healthcare which put patients’ lives at risk, no matter how small that risk may appear to be. 1 It would be a change to see politicians with the moral fibre to admit to their foolishness when a particular change in policy is seen to put patients' lives at risk. Then they must undo their folly.
NHS Direct and local call centres give advice to patients or their relatives over the phone in accordance with written guidelines. Unfortunately, as any doctor worth his salt will tell you, a clinical history, particularly when taken from a third party, is valueless without a physical examination of the patient. For me, an isolated physician, to be aware of several patients who have died as a result of gratuitous misguided telephonic advice, then these financially driven incentives, implemented with the intention of closing or downsizing A&E departments, should be buried along with their victims and protagonists.
Footnotes
DECLARATIONS