Patients get shipped out mainly to specialised units. Some simply because there are no beds available but they are fetched back as soon as possible. It's not right but that's how it is. I'm not sure that private hospitals charge much more than it would cost within the nhs as their general overheads are lower. It does cost a lot of money to house a nhs inpatient though. I used to work on a psychiatric intensive care unit 11 years ago (currently on acute) and at that time it cost 750£ a day for one patient. Yes folks 750£ a day. Food for thought.
TBH, I wouldn’t know about private v NHS in terms of cost and was aware people only get shipped out when lack of resource. However I also know that they are not always fetched back when there is space. I know of case where a 16 year old girl was sent to Manchester and was there for best part of a year, her parents tried all sorts to bring her back to Lincoln, but each time was told no room at the inn. In the meantime in Lincoln the person responsible for allocation was getting ‘talked to’ because they had empty beds but continued to pay Manchester. A lot more to the story than that but that’s the nutshell, I appreciate what you say is what should happen and does not mean this example is the norm and perhaps just highlights the problem about mismanagement etc.
Yes there's a number of reasons why she wouldn't have been fetched back sooner i guess. One could be that there was no specialised facility meeting her requirement in lincoln. There could also have been allegations made by the patient (or her family) which meant she couldn't return to that hospital. Or perhaps she had assaulted staff and was targetting people. It would be highly unusual for someone to be out of area for so long if it was a like for like swap though. In my experience bed managers are pretty w**k.
she must have been in considerable pain to go in the 1st place, and if she had chosen not to visit she wouldn't have got any antibiotics i agree with your advice on an emergency dentist....which she did take, and got told nearest available was in hull which i put in 1st post strangely enough, so in hindsight she did the right thing to get treatment for the record, the nhs recommends a&e as an option for treatment https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/dental-abscess/
I would say its probably easier and quicker to be seen in A&E than it is to get an appointment with your own GP in some cases.
Which is the biggest cause of A&E being full of ‘time wasters’. those of us who can’t get a GP appointment within a week are the hidden and boring statistic in the underfunded NHS. how many serious symptoms are ignored (mental and physical) because trying to get to see a GP just adds to our stress?
