Efficiency in the NHS

I have not witnessed this myself but I’ve heard that residents in the old people’s home in Saltford (nr Bath) are being taken to their local hospital, some 50 yards away, by ambulance because hospital workers won’t walk the patients across the busy road for health and safety reasons as there is no pedestrian crossing.

Now I don’t blame the hospital workers. Old people, bless them, aren’t exactly the quickest movers in the world. So you wouldn’t won’t to be stuck in the middle of a busy road with one.

Currently the only solution to this is to take them by ambulance. I don’t know the exact cost of calling in an ambulance each time to make the transfers, but I doubt it is cost effective. At a time when the NHS is facing cutbacks, money being spent like this is ridiculous.

The solution, put a pedestrian crossing in. Surely this would be a much better use of public funds?