BMJ 1995;311:1575 (9 December)

Letters

Nurse triage may reduce workload in accident department

EDITOR,--We read the editorial by Andrew B Bindman1 and the two articles by Jeremy Dale and colleagues2 3 on triage in accident and emergency departments with interest. With the ever increasing number of patients presenting to accident and emergency departments, a stricter triage system and, perhaps, a new approach to deal with the problems are needed. As Bindman suggests, there can be no gold standard for determining the appropriateness of visits, and accurate triage guidelines are impossible to develop.

At Liverpool we now have a new, amalgamated ophthalmic primary care department, which has replaced the ophthalmic accident and emergency department and caters for all ophthalmic accidents and emergencies as well as providing a service for patients with less urgent needs. Such an amalgamated unit would certainly reflect the philosophy of the report of the royal commission on the NHS quoted by Dale and colleagues.4 Given general practitioners' low level of undergraduate . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Triage in accident and emergency departments
Andrew B Bindman
BMJ 1995 311: 404. [Extract] [Full Text]

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