# General > Politics >  NHS Caithness

## BetterTogether

I'm very pleased to tell you that while Paul Monaghan SNP MP for Caithness and Sutherland is busy trying to deal with Chagos issues and Syria. 

Struan Mackie, Conservative  is actively working away behind the scenes trying to ensure we get the service we deserve in Caithness not the one currently being foisted on us.

Great to see someone who is actually actively working hard for the people of this area instead of worrying about non related issues.

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## BetterTogether

This article is well worth a read

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## cptdodger

I have never voted Conservative in my life, but I would give Struan Mackie my vote if he was able to improve the services offered at Caithness General. The fact he is trying, speaks volumes. I have watched these services disintegrate since I moved here six and a half years ago, and that is by no means a reflection on the staff that do work there, they are excellent and it is certainly not their fault the situation they find themselves in. 

There are two issues here one is money, and the other is finding Doctors and Consultants willing to relocate here. I do wonder though is it the fact they cannot secure the Doctors and Consultants, or are they just not willing to pay for them ?

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## BetterTogether

They seem to be able to pay well over the odds for locums to fly in and cover positions. So it's nothing to do with a lack of people capable of doing the job. Problem in my simplified view is we train doctors and nurses etc within the NHS, they then leave to work for private companies who sell their services back to the NHS for more money.

If there are plenty of staff for these private agencies to provide it's fairly obvious what's going on.

What the NHS needs to do is begin to cut the amount is prepared to pay these staff and cut the numbers they are using.

When you have a situation where people can go to a private company and earn more for doing the same job it's obvious you'll haemorage staff. Once the pay of locum staff is paid at the same rate as normal staff there will be no incentive to go work outside the NHS and the problem may begin to rectify itself.

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## cptdodger

From the article BetterTogether posted -

_"and plans to refuse treatment to thousands of A&E patients because they are not ill enough" 

_So, you turn up at A&E, who decides you are not ill enough, the receptionist, the Nurse, the Doctor ? Once they have decided you are not ill enough, you go to your GP, in my case two different GP practices here, missed the fact that for four years, I had a problem with my heart, it was an offhand comment to my Consultant, that probably saved my life.

 Personally speaking I have to think my life is in danger before I go to A&E, or I think I have broken something, I have never phoned for an ambulance in my life. The last time I was in A&E was last year and I was in two minds about going, but I couldn't breathe without a severe pain in my back. When I turned up I apologised for wasting their time, it turned out they thought I had had a heart attack (I hadn't) but, had I read that, I would not have gone, and without treatment it could have progressed to a heart attack. There must be other people out there that feel the same as me, how many lives is this going to cost?

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## Fulmar

Unfortunately, there are many people who regularly *do* show up at A and E for entirely *trivial reasons*. Maybe this does not happen at Caithness General (I do not know) but it certainly does happen at other hospitals. If these un-necessary visits could be prevented through education or whatever then it would be much better for A and E departments. Perhaps this is what is being referred to above rather than the need to urgently see people in extreme pain or medical distress such as that outlined by cptdodger?

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## cptdodger

> Unfortunately, there are many people who regularly *do* show up at A and E for entirely *trivial reasons*. Maybe this does not happen at Caithness General (I do not know) but it certainly does happen at other hospitals. If these un-necessary visits could be prevented through education or whatever then it would be much better for A and E departments. Perhaps this is what is being referred to above rather than the need to urgently see people in extreme pain or medical distress such as that outlined by cptdodger?


Which is fair enough, I don't know about Caithness General whether it happens there or not either. The point being, if they do turn up at A&E, I would think at the very least a triage nurse would have to assess the injury/ilness to determine how serious it was. Which is still going to take time and resources. I think they still have adverts on the television regarding this subject, there are certainly posters all over hospitals, pharmacies and surgeries concerning where to go for treatment and who to contact.

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