London GPs face charade to admit patients

Many general practitioners in London have to go through a “time-wasting charade” before getting their patients admitted to hospital, an investigation into London's emergency services by the King's Fund Institute has found. More than one in three general practitioners in London had difficulty getting patients admitted to hospital in an emergency, the report says. Discussions between general practitioners trying to admit patients and hospital doctors could degenerate into confrontation, and when a general practitioner cannot obtain an admission by negotiation “referral to the Emergency Bed Service …