And the tales of medical woe continue to mount in the UK as the NHS collapses. Now, there is a serious shortage of emergency room doctors. From the story:
The College of Emergency Medicine has issued a report calling for the number of A&E consultants must double within three years in order to ensure there is proper supervision of junior doctors so patients get the best care.This is not the direction in which we should want to go.
In their report The Way Ahead, the College said there needs to be 1500 emergency medicine consultants by 2012 as this would mean there was a senior doctor on duty in each A&E at all times. Currently only a minority of hospital emergency departments have adequate numbers of senior doctors and complex cases and very sick patients are seen by doctors who are still training.