APPENDIX 36
Memorandum by Dr Colm O'Mahony (SH 56)
I am a single handed consultant in a DGH. Been
here 12 years. Never seen a service become so demoralised and
overwhelmed. Just too many patients. Amazingly we are still open
access but I've pushed the staff to their limit in my passion
to keep the service open access. We have trimmed everything down
to ensure a fast efficient service ie home treatments, phone results,
stop tests of cure etc but we are still overwhelmed. Need more
staff and bigger clinic. Local GPs are excellent and very appreciative
of this open access service and do as much as they can. But they
can not do more as suggested by the strategy. Indeed if they did
not have such a good clinic here they would be reluctant to try
any management of STD at all!
Finally one relevant point which you may not
hear from other sources is the fact that the 300 or so consultants
doing GUM and HIV are a shining example of total dedication to
the NHS. I did a survey for our national society on workforce
(Published in Int J STD AIDS 2000) which showed that less than
4% of the consultants were engaged in private practice. These
consultants are totally committed to the NHS and the failing service
is not due to skiving off to private practice! Can you think of
any other speciality getting into such a tizzy just because they
can't see cases within 48 hours? You well know that waiting lists
generate private practice and here we are pleading for open access.
Recognise our dedication and commitment and support our efforts
to restore the ideal of easy access.
| 
