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Dear Editor
May I thank Dr Bacon for mentioning re-re-re-disorganisations of the NHS?
I remember even earlier times. When the NHS did not waste money on calculating catchment flows.
Do the doctors today know that Nye Bevan‘s NHS permitted a GP in, say, Uxbridge, to refer patients to , say, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary or to St Barts?
No catchment area nonsense. ( And by the way, Hillingdon had, then, a good hospital. ).
Successive governments played their part in closing down hospitals.
Now there is talk of building NEW HOSPITALS. Yes, TALK.
In those far-off days, the local health authorities used to run family planning clinics, orthopaedic clinics for pre-school and school children, psychological and psychiatric clinics for pre-school and school children ( in association with the regional ,hospital boards), antenatal and post-natal clinics.
To the politicians I say: I do not care how many New hospitals you are going to build, how many thousand nurses you are going to recruit, how many doctors you are going to train. None of the three parties with experience in Downing Street and around have stopped the leaking bucket in the past thirty years or so.
Get the staff to work in the existing hospitals.
The RCOG calls for a new and bold approach to providing women's health services.
A bold approach is indeed needed, but would it be new? Before multiple redisorganisations of the NHS, there were, in SE London and many other areas, evening walk-in clinics that started at 6.30 or7pm, offering walk-in services including cervical screening, with no restrictions as to where the woman lived. These were later extended, to include STI screening, services for men, and Saturday clinics. A domiciliary service was available for very disadvantaged women.
The work was family-friendly for staff, which tended to lead to cynical opinions about "lady family planning doctors", but was important even in the days before the term "work-life balance" had been invented.
In the name of efficiency and local commissioning much of this has been lost, but can we remember that it has been done before and can be done again?
Re: Open women’s health clinics at evenings and weekends, says RCOG- Dr Bacon’s response
Dear Editor
May I thank Dr Bacon for mentioning re-re-re-disorganisations of the NHS?
I remember even earlier times. When the NHS did not waste money on calculating catchment flows.
Do the doctors today know that Nye Bevan‘s NHS permitted a GP in, say, Uxbridge, to refer patients to , say, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary or to St Barts?
No catchment area nonsense. ( And by the way, Hillingdon had, then, a good hospital. ).
Successive governments played their part in closing down hospitals.
Now there is talk of building NEW HOSPITALS. Yes, TALK.
In those far-off days, the local health authorities used to run family planning clinics, orthopaedic clinics for pre-school and school children, psychological and psychiatric clinics for pre-school and school children ( in association with the regional ,hospital boards), antenatal and post-natal clinics.
To the politicians I say: I do not care how many New hospitals you are going to build, how many thousand nurses you are going to recruit, how many doctors you are going to train. None of the three parties with experience in Downing Street and around have stopped the leaking bucket in the past thirty years or so.
Get the staff to work in the existing hospitals.
Competing interests: No competing interests