Reconfiguration of surgical, emergency, and trauma services: Patient power may be the way forward

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7438.522-c

BMJ 2004;328:522-523 (28 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7438.522-c

Letter

Reconfiguration of surgical, emergency, and trauma services

Patient power may be the way forward

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

EDITOR—The editorial by Black on the reconfiguration ofsurgical and emergency services in the United Kingdom exudescommon sense.¹ Lomond in Scotland has lost accident and emergencysurgical services in the past four months, and local generalpractitioners have had difficulty in securing safe servicesfor the population. This comes on top of loss of maternity serviceslast year at the local district general hospital.

We have been badly served by surgeons who, with their royalcolleges, insist on retreating to so called centres of excellence,with little thought of the price paid by the population deprivedof hospital services. Administrators have no choice when surgeonscannot or do not have the will to think "outside the box" forrural or small town communities, but they could support generalpractitioners trying to provide safe cover for their patients.

Such support is not always forthcoming, and general practitionersare . . . [Full text of this article]

Patrick M Trust, principal in general practice

Medical Centre, Alexandria G83 0LS patricktrust@ukonline.co.uk