Healthwatch B&NES news
Tell us what you think about urgent care services
Healthwatch B&NES is always keen to hear people’s views about local health and social care services, but periodically we choose a specific service or topic to talk to people about. Throughout February that topic will be urgent care.
Every winter, the local and national news is full of bulletins about the pressure on local services, particularly emergency departments (A&E) and ambulances. We hear about hospitals across the country being in ‘black escalation’, patients waiting on trolleys in corridors, people waiting in ambulances to get into the hospital, people waiting for ambulances to come and pick them up and so on, but why does this happen? There are lots of services that people can use, such as: community pharmacies, NHS 111, minor injuries units and the NHS Choices website, so why do we continue to see repeated pressure in areas such as A&E?
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