Since properly funding general practice is clearly out of the question, why not give these a go.
Urgent care centres may have cost the taxpayer over a billion dollars but they’ve only managed to reduce ED presentations by 10%.
Here are five much cheaper ways the government could have achieved the same goal.
1. Lemsips
Chances are the patient’s sore throat and blocked ears are caused by a virus which will settle with a hot Lemsip and a couple of paracetamol. If patients only had the confidence and wherewithal to treat minor ailments like these, then the number of ED presentations would fall by way more than a measly 10%.
2. Common sense
Don’t take your child to ED if they’ve swallowed a baby tooth, they’ll just poo it out. And don’t take them if they’ve drunk half a bottle of undiluted cordial, just give them some water to drink and get them to jump around a bit.
3. Get creative
With a billion dollars you could staff urgent care centres with the most famous male and female Hollywood actors on the planet. No one would set foot in the emergency department ever again, you’d still have about $200 million bucks left in change and patients would want the waiting times to go up!
4. Electricity costs
If patients could only afford to switch their air conditioning on at home they wouldn’t have to sit around for hours in the emergency department waiting for a junior doctor to come along and assess their imaginary knee pain.
5. Properly fund general practice
This is a novel idea! Fund general practice so that amply qualified and experienced general practitioners who know their community like the back of their hand can provide out of hours and weekend clinics for their patients. Failing that, a bit of Lemsip should do the trick.
