In your country, how often do hospitals have Accident & Emergency facilities?

[Tooting Carmen]

Fee-paying, but there are exceptions, such as women from the haitian part of the island coming to give birth (usually without the slightest prenatal check ups).

OK. But anyway, even in the tiniest village hospital in DR, if I showed up at 3am on Christmas Day with a really bad and mysterious stomach pain, would a doctor eventually see me, or would I be told to go to a hospital in Punta Cana or something?

[Andullero]

OK. But anyway, even in the tiniest village hospital in DR, if I showed up at 3am on Christmas Day with a really bad and mysterious stomach pain, would a doctor eventually see me, or would I be told to go to a hospital in Punta Cana or something?

No, on those cases you'd be perfectly attended without a hitch. It is only on the cases of serious car crashes and stuff where surgeries are needed when such sending out is done.

[Tooting Carmen]

No, on those cases you'd be perfectly attended without a hitch. It is only on the cases of serious car crashes and stuff where surgeries are needed when such sending out is done.

But would the village hospital have the necessary facilities to fully investigate, e.g. blood lab and MRI/CT/ultrasound rooms?

[gixajo]

But what proportion of hospitals in France would you estimate have A & E facilities, where you could go in even at 3am on Christmas Day and (eventually) be seen by a doctor?

In the hospital where I work, there is no emergency service as such, but if someone comes to the hospital to be treated for an emergency, they are treated. In fact, the three floors alternate to attend to possible emergencies, although preferably because they do not have a wide variety of diagnostic devices or specialized operating rooms, serious cases are usually referred to larger hospitals, and if they make direct calls to the hospital to ask to bring an emergency from a nearby town, it is usually recommended that they ask for a medicalized ambulance over the phone to be taken directly to more complete hospitals.

I work in a hospital located in a very rural area. Within the Basque health service it fulfills the role of provincial Hospital for Very Long Stay patients but at the same time it fulfills the function of a regional Hospital. Basically we have patients who have suffered cerebrovascular accidents with severe damage to mobility, injured patients (both car accidents and "precipitated", that is, a good number of suicide attempts due to falls) and rehabilitations after amputation surgeries. In addition, there are also patients who receive palliative care who are in the last stages of different cancers.

In general, here is a tendency to maintain a highly centralized specialized emergency service in as few hospitals as possible (very serious emergencies, I mean). It is a very demanding service of professionals, which quickly burns out workers, which requires continuous rotation of personnel and, above all, a service that requires many and great administration expenses.

[Andullero]

But would the village hospital have the necessary facilities to fully investigate, e.g. blood lab and MRI/CT/ultrasound rooms?

I'd say it depends on the province. If you are up north or the eastern region, they do have them. It is the southwest where conditions are ones approaching hostile borderland stage.

[Tooting Carmen]

In the hospital where I work, there is no emergency service as such, but if someone comes to the hospital to be treated for an emergency, they are treated. In fact, the three floors alternate to attend to possible emergencies, although preferably because they do not have a wide variety of diagnostic devices or specialized operating rooms, serious cases are usually referred to larger hospitals, and if they make direct calls to the hospital to ask to bring an emergency from a nearby town, it is usually recommended that they ask for a medicalized ambulance over the phone to be taken directly to more complete hospitals.

I work in a hospital located in a very rural area. Within the Basque health service it fulfills the role of provincial Hospital for Very Long Stay patients but at the same time it fulfills the function of a regional Hospital. Basically we have patients who have suffered cerebrovascular accidents with severe damage to mobility, injured patients (both car accidents and "precipitated", that is, a good number of suicide attempts due to falls) and rehabilitations after amputation surgeries. In addition, there are also patients who receive palliative care who are in the last stages of different cancers.

In general, here is a tendency to maintain a highly centralized specialized emergency service in as few hospitals as possible (very serious emergencies, I mean). It is a very demanding service of professionals, which quickly burns out workers, which requires continuous rotation of personnel and, above all, a service that requires many and great administration expenses.

That is good to hear. Because in the Swansea hospital which used to have an A & E facility but no longer does, I actually had an appointment with a specialist there a couple of months back, and while in the waiting room there was a disabled woman accompanied by her husband who had suspected sepsis, but the receptionists and nurses (very politely and apologetically) turned her away and said she had to go to the hospital that does still have the A & E department.

[Andullero]

That is good to hear. Because in the Swansea hospital which used to have an A & E facility but no longer does, I actually had an appointment with a specialist there a couple of months back, and while in the waiting room there was a disabled woman accompanied by her husband who had suspected sepsis, but the receptionists and nurses (very politely and apologetically) turned her away and said she had to go to the hospital that does still have the A & E department.

You live there or in Cardiff?

[Tooting Carmen]

You live there or in Cardiff?

Swansea, Wales' second city, 40 miles west of Cardiff. (Curiously, Cardiff's riots in the deprived area of Ely come almost exactly two years after Swansea's riots in the deprived area of Mayhill, but that is another discussion).

[gixajo]

That is good to hear. Because in the Swansea hospital which used to have an A & E facility but no longer does, I actually had an appointment with a specialist there a couple of months back, and while in the waiting room there was a disabled woman accompanied by her husband who had suspected sepsis, but the receptionists and nurses (very politely and apologetically) turned her away and said she had to go to the hospital that does still have the A & E department.

It depends on several things, but basically in this hospital if through a diagnosis it is concluded that it really is sepsis, and depending on the severity of the symptoms, it is most likely that after stabilize the patient he will be sent to a hospital with more services to be treated properly.

If the case is very serious and urgent and there could be traffic problems, it could even happen that instead of by road ambulance the evacuation is done by helicopter.

During the worst moments of the Covid, due to the type of vulnerable patients that we usually have, this hospital had been declared a "zero covid hospital" (all positive covid patients were taken to other hospitals) the general rule was not to attend emergencies that they present symptoms of covid, which seemed unethical to many of us, and even more so considering that emergencies are usually attended to in a separate area from where the bed patients are.

[Tooting Carmen]

It depends on several things, but basically in this hospital if through a diagnosis it is concluded that it really is sepsis, and depending on the severity of the symptoms, it is most likely that after stabilize the patient he will be sent to a hospital with more services to be treated properly.

If the case is very serious and urgent and there could be traffic problems, it could even happen that instead of by road ambulance the evacuation is done by helicopter.

During the worst moments of the Covid, due to the type of vulnerable patients that we usually have, this hospital had been declared a "zero covid hospital" (all positive covid patients were taken to other hospitals) the general rule was not to attend emergencies that they present symptoms of covid, which seemed unethical to many of us, and even more so considering that emergencies are usually attended to in a separate area from where the bed patients are.

Are you a doctor then?