CONTROVERSIES IN EMERGENCY CARE

Debate

See and Treat: a management driven method of achieving targets or a tool for better patient care? One size does not fit all

A M Leaman

Princess Royal Hospital NHS Trust, Telford TF1 6TF, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr A M Leaman;
shirley.redfern@prh.nhs.uk

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We were very grateful to Leaman for his contribution that forms the first part of this debate. He is voicing concerns of many on the front line of A&E feel and we acknowledge his forthright and courageous approach. Equally it can be easy to criticise but difficult to be constructive, especially in such an arduous task as improving the UK emergency care system. We therefore have invited responses to the issues raised in the hope of stimulating debate on these critical issues for emergency care in the UK. We thank all the authors in this section for their hard work and well argued contributions to this debate. JW/PD

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Keywords: see and treat

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

For anyone still uncertain about the concept, See and Treat is a process whereby patients with minor conditions are seen soon after they arrive in A&E by a senior clinician. Providing they have an appropriate problem such patients are given their definitive treatment straightaway and can then be discharged.

The Department of Health is very anxious that all A&E departments should adopt See and Treat and has organised a road show that has toured the UK spreading the word. Circulars and emails, arriving on an almost daily basis, have encouraged senior A&E staff to attend these meetings. One recent DoH letter even asked departments when, not whether, they would be introducing See and Treat.

The star turn at the See and Treat road show is the Kettering A&E Department. Kettering had its Eureka moment when it found that it’s throughput times were rising because all its cubicles (both major . . . [Full text of this article]

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