The emergency room at Peebles Hospital should be used for acute medical emergencies, not for patients who need routine care from a doctor, elected representatives said Monday evening, explaining why they are planning to establish a clinic at the hospital.
“At the hospital right now we are renovating a whole section,” said Health and Social Development Minister Ronnie Skelton during his party’s radio programme. “We’re going to create the outpatient care or the clinic which will be run later in the evening, let’s say until 8 or 10 o’clock in the evening.”
According to Mr. Skelton (R-at large), in cases such as the recent multiple-injury automobile accident, the wait time in the emergency room gets to be hours long.
“Some of the people who sit in the emergency room, they sometimes don’t need to be in that position,” he said, adding, “We have not done the job we should have done in terms of letting them know there is a place you can get this care.”
See the May 10, 2012 edition for full coverage.
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