Dr Sahota spoke at the CCA meeting about the plans for A&E in Ealing, after the announcement that 2 of the 4 units scheduled for closure had been reprieved. He stated that there’s no evidence that specialist A&E units (eg. specialing in particular conditions such as heart attacks, strokes or trauma) have better health outcome than others and stated that a House of Commons report earlier this year supported this view. I looked up the report and it states nearly the exact opposite of this. You can find the full report here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmhealth/171/171.pdfThe key conclusions of the report are set out in paragraph 62:“The Committee accepts that a strong case has been made for the centralisation of some aspects of acute emergency care in regional specialist emergency units on the basis that substantial clinical benefits are delivered by focusing skills and resources in single locations. We are, however, concerned that this evidence is not abused; each proposal for service redesign should be reviewed on the basis of the evidence so that centralisation is justified only when the evidence supports it, not as an end in itself. For example, in rural areas the benefits of centralising care for some serious conditions could be negated by increased transport times.”
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