• attending a minor injuries unit 
• or a walk-in centre 
• or visiting their GP if it is during working hours 
• or the out-of-hours primary care centre – 
• or they can telephone 999, 
• or NHS Direct 
• or the local out-of-hours service.

How does one decide which route to take in the stress of an emergency in the family?

Dr Taylor suggested one universal telephone number connecting to one national triage system (such as NHS Pathways) which can be staffed by trained lay people releasing nurses to actually care for patients.

#   He also discussed the necessity of defining the function of every hospital emergency department so that everyone would know exactly what their local department was equipped and staffed to cope with. 
At the lower end of the scale of emergency hospital departments comes the nurse-led minor injuries unit. However good the nurses are running such a department they can only cope with minor injuries and not any actual illnesses that constitute so many emergencies.

Dr Taylor told the House that such a department is inadequate to replace a full A&E department as had happened at Kidderminster over six years ago and that at last the local health trusts were about to undertake a pilot trial of a doctor in the MIU to study how this could widen the scope of emergency patients seen locally and thus relieve the over-burdened neighbouring A&E departments and ambulance services.

In responding Ben Bradshaw MP, Minster of State in the Department of Health agreed that patients should only have to make one phone call to one number to obtain appropriate help. 
He also said, 

"I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on the role that he has played in initiating the doctor-led unit in his local hospital. We will be watching its impact and progress with great interest."

Dr Taylor concluded, 

"For a patient journey, a route map and a destination are required. At the moment, I contend that patients in areas that have lost A and E departments have neither a route map nor a firm idea of their destination."

For a full reference to the above, see Hansard, 17 July 2007, columns 58 – 64WH.