Posted on 04/28/2010 6:30:13 AM PDT by markomalley
Over the 40 plus years of my medical career there has been progressive evolution of clinical services. The management of cardiac surgery, stroke rehabilitation, transplantation, joint replacement and IVF have all developed at the behest of medical science. The costs of these services have been added to the "bread and butter" responsibilities of trauma, obstetrics, cancer and emergency surgery, and the management of medical disorders such as pneumonia and heart attacks. While paediatric workload has diminished thanks to better obstetric care, there has been a necessary explosion of services in geriatric medicine and mental health care.
In 1997 the NHS employed nearly 1 million people. It now employs 1.35 million. The cost of the service represents 9 per cent of GDP, an increase of 3 percentage points in real terms since the Millburn/Blair takeover of policy. However, the electorate has been short-changed.
Medical students of my generation knew that they were joining a profession where the time of day, or day of the week had no bearing on the level of service one was required to provide, whether in general practice or as a specialist. That concept is now to all intents and purposes dead, a casualty of the "new" contract for GPs in 2004 that allowed them to opt out of providing ''out of hours'' care, and of the European Working Time Directive (EWTD), which limits the number of hours hospital doctors can work in a week. As a result, there is a large and increasing cohort of young medics unfamiliar with the concept of continuous responsibility for a patient.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Nov 2, 2010.
bookmark.
It is scary to think that the training of physicians is being dictated by the “European Working Time Directive” rather than on standards of care and professional competency. I was also struck by the mention of hospital care being given in a 24 bed ward. Any hospitals that I am familiar with abandoned multi-bed wards 50 years ago and offer nothing but private rooms. I do not think Americans would be too keen on sharing their room with two dozen other patients separated by nothing more than a curtain.
Ward usually refers to the entire section served by a single central nursing station staffed by 6 or more nurses at any given time. Rooms can be private, semi-private, or common. The common is a 4-bed situation, semi is 2 beds, private is self-explanatory.
A 24 bed ward would have at the very least 6 rooms, more likely 10-14.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.