Seek out treatment faster to keep out of hospital, individuals told

An ambulance outside A&ampE. Photograph: Bethany Clarke/Getty Pictures

The NHS is urging patients to help alleviate the expanding strain on hospitals by getting quicker treatment for minor ailments and not “soldiering on” with an sickness that may possibly then worsen.

It is launching a new £3m marketing campaign to persuade sufferers to look for advice or treatment method as soon as symptoms seem, so they do not finish up in A&ampE or having to keep in hospital.

Professor Keith Willett, NHS England’s director for acute care, said: “We see in our hospitals so numerous people who have not had or sought the aid they want early sufficient. We have to do much better at assisting people keep effectively, not just choosing up the pieces when they fall critically ill.”

Advertisements for the NHS’s “the earlier, the greater” campaign will appear on billboards, in nationwide newspapers and on radio stations and web sites.

It is aimed in distinct at frail, older men and women and individuals with extended-phrase circumstances such as heart trouble and diabetes, who take up a disproportionate volume of hospital beds and doctors’ time.

NHS bosses want sufferers to go to their local chemist for tips, check out the NHS Options website or ring the 111 guidance services, then see their GP if necessary, and only turn up at A&ampE if medically necessary.

The University of Emergency Medicine, which represents A&ampE physicians, welcomed the move as “a phase in the proper direction”, but additional that additional action was required.

A higher use of self-care would also relieve strain on GP surgeries, the British Health care Association explained.

“If a patient feels they want to access NHS solutions they ought to do so, but it is usually the case exactly where an individual can safely deal with their personal small conditions or ailments, for instance by going to a pharmacist for non-prescription medicine, rather than possessing the inconvenience of creating an pointless GP appointment and then sitting in a waiting space with other sick individuals”, explained Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the BMA’s GP committee.

Seek out treatment faster to keep out of hospital, individuals told