A new Diagnostic Centre is located in Market Street, Torquay. It is projected that waiting lists for CT scans, MRIs, Ultrasounds, Xrays and ECGs will be reduced by the facility. I hope so, but like all medical treatment issues the main problem appears to be lack of staffing and not equipment. Will it be well staffed?
Did we not hear in February 2024 that there were two new operating theatres opening at Torbay Hospital and these would reduce waiting times for replacement knees, hips etc? How's that going?
Generally it is difficult at present to get face-to-face consultations in all medical spheres. Many people I meet seem to have a distressing story about care, or rather, the lack of accessibility to care, presumably caused by inadequate staffing levels.
Has anyone ever considered shift work in the medical professions? If not being operated by a human then expensive machinery will be left unused for too long each day. Of course, there has to be downtime for maintenance but if there is a crisis, and I would suggest there is in the medical provision domain, then we need to put more hours in and/or expand recruitment .
Anyone else old enough to remember when the local surgery doctor "on call" would, for example, visit your home at 11:40pm on a Sunday night, administer some medicine and write a prescription which a pharmacist would fulfill immediately the next day. If critical, he'd ring for an ambulance that would be with you within minutes, not hours.
Oh, while I'm at it, there were two postal deliveries everyday except Sunday when there was only one!
So, while I celebrate the new facility I am cautious about it's beneficial impact on the whole problem. Basically, the inability to make an appointment with a doctor.
Twithay?
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