BMJ 1995;311:121 (8 July)

Letters

Transfer of patients requiring

Central register of neurosurgical beds would prevent delays

EDITOR,--Owen Dyer has reported the events surrounding the death of Malcolm Murray, who was transferred to Leeds with head injuries after considerable difficulty was encountered in locating a more local neurosurgical bed.1 2 We have prospectively audited our acute neurosurgical referrals from the Lister Hospital over the past nine months. In most cases we have been able to refer our patients to one of the two nearest centres. On several occasions, however, we have experienced similar difficulties to those described by Dyer. Indeed, on four occasions we have had to contact six neurosurgical centres to arrange transfer and subsequent assessment and care. This has resulted in considerable delay, which could have had an adverse effect on clinical outcome, and in the duplication of effort in the relay of complicated clinical information.

We would welcome a central register of the emergency neurosurgical beds that . . . [Full text of this article]


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