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Anorak News | Administering The Sick

Administering The Sick

by | 30th, September 2004

‘THERE are so many better things you could be doing rather then staring forlornly down the track as your wait for your morning train.

‘I can’t find his wallet’

You could write a book, take a GCSE in engineering or see about your prostate gland.

And that last notion may come to pass as the Times hears Heath Secretary John Reid outline his plans to install walk-in “commuter clinics” at main railways stations.

But commuters eager to get their hands on some Prozac and surgical stockings to make their commute more bearable, should check out the credentials of the medic in the white coat.

He looks like a doctor. He smells like a doctor. But he may be little more than a hospital administrator.

As the Times reports, a pilot programme at Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust has been reducing waiting lists by employing non-doctors as medical staff.

The Trust has trained three people to perform colonoscopies and flexible sigmoidoscopies, procedures in which the colon is examined using a bendy stick with a camera on one end.

One of the three is a nurse. One is a “scientist”. And one is an administrator who has absolutely no medial experience at all – and is more used to pushing pens than sticks up patients’ backsides.

While this may be something of a concern for a patient bending over, the Trust is delighted with how its project has reduced waiting lists.

Indeed, the Government are reported to like the plan, and are eager to encourage such schemes.

So next time you’re at the station and think you recognise the man in the mask, don’t be too shocked if he suddenly breaks off your treatment to announce that the 8:23 to Paddington has been delayed due to leaves on the line.’



Posted: 30th, September 2004 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink