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Love on the wards: Martin and Anna Bruce |
Wedded bliss in the wards
DURING the daily business of saving lives, ward sisters Martin Bruce and Anna Cheeseman found time to find love.
The pair’s eyes met across a crowded lecture room while they were taking part in a training course – and after tying the knot, they have been dubbed by colleagues ‘The Bruce Sisters’.
Both are senior members of staff on wards at the University College hospital and
Mr Bruce, 29, specialises in infectious diseases. He said: “It was kind of love at first sight. We used to go for drinks after the away days and we just got to know each other and took it from there.
“We tried to keep it secret but the problem with nurses is they all gossip. We’re both ward sisters so our colleagues now lovingly call us the Bruce Sisters.”
The couple were married in August at St John the Baptist Church in Shirley, Croydon, and were joined by family and friends including ten work colleagues.
They spent their honeymoon in Sorrento, Italy.
£8m lost in missed Free appointments
Call for clinics to be open in evening
ONE IN FIVE patients miss their appointments at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead – costing doctors at the hospital hundreds of wasted man hours and the Free’s cash-strapped coffers up to £8 million in missed payments.
The revelation that patients failed to show up to 20 per cent of their appointments was revealed at the Pond Street hospital’s annual general meeting on Thursday night.
Trust chairwoman Pam Chesters said: “It is a worrying figure and one we are working hard to address.
“We need to work out how we can bring this figure down. These include phoning patients before hand, texting them, sending reminder letters.”
And the chairwoman revealed that the Trust board were considering extending clinic hours to make it easier for people to show up.
Ms Chesters added: “Clinics could work into the evening, so people can come in after work to be seen by their doctor.”
According to Royal Free figures, the hospital this year will have 305,000 out-patient appointments – meaning up to 61,000 could be missed. And the high numbers are not only bad news for patients, who are missing valuable consulting times with specialists – it costs the hospital an average of £130 each time a patient fails to show.
A spokesman said: “Out-patient payments depend on a number of things. The speciality, the age of the patient, whether the patient involved a procedure, or simply a consultation – but the average payment is £130. We are paid only for patients who attend, so our ‘Did Not Attend’ rate is crucial.”
And the meeting also heard that the Royal Free’s Accident and Emergency department had seen numbers visiting the department rise by 22 per cent over three years, with 78,437 people heading to the Royal Free for emergency care in 2005/06.
Accident and Emergency consultant Andreas Martin, who heads the unit, said it was a trend that continued year in year out. He said the rises were not a sign that people were having more accidents.
He said: “There are three reasons for this. We first saw the rise after we had implemented the new rules that says you must be seen within four hours. This has partly made people think that A&E is more efficient, and better run.”
And this has been coupled with longer waiting times for gp appointments.
He added: “In the last three years getting a GP appointment has become more difficult.”
And Mr Martin added it only takes a small percentage of the people going to see GPs to decide to head to A&E to have an effect on the figures.
He said: “Two-hundred million GP appointments are made each year, while the figure is 18 million for accident and emergency. It only takes a small number of people to stop using GP services and instead head to casualty to make a difference to our figures.”
Mr Andreas said: “We have employed more senior doctors to work at night and that has helped meet the four hour target and provide a better service for patients.” |
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