HC Deb 14 May 1971 vol 817 cc847-8

3.57 p.m.

Mr. Tom Boardman (Leicester, South-West)

I beg to move, That this House, whilst recognising that this is not due to any lack of funds made available by Her Majesty's Government and praising the devotion to their duties by existing staffs at all levels, regrets that the current practice discourages general practitioners from treating minor injuries without placing added burdens on the hospital service; notes that the delays in attending to casualties in some part of the country are increasing to levels which are unacceptable in a modern health service; and calls upon Her Majesty's Government to review the present system of staffing, including recruitment and the further assistance that can be obtained from general practitioners within the National Health Service. There is a growing concern throughout the country at the delays in casualty departments of various hospitals. While this does not reflect upon the standard of medical care and the devotion of the staffs, delays of many hours are occurring of many hours in the treatment of minor injuries. The causes are too numerous to amplify now, but a great deal more could be contributed by general practitioners and by a greater education of the public into the way in which they should use these services.

There is a major role in educating the public. There is a case for project studies by the Minister on the lines of that done by the Hospital Advisory Service in its recent report, to establish why so many patients with comparatively minor injuries, which one would expect to be dealt with at home or at any rate by their general practitioner, go to the casualty department, causing considerable congestion and delay.

The medical staffs in the casualty departments are overworked. They lack a careers structure which will attract the right number and the right quality—I make no derogatory remarks about the quality of those there now—of people into those departments. At the same time, it would enable general practitioners, too many of whom complain of the lack of medical work they can do, to develop and practise their skills in the treatment of casualties both to a greater extent in their own surgeries and assisting more in the hospitals—