Access to health care

Access to Health Care Name: Course title: Instructor: Institution: Date Due: Access to Health Care Walk in clinics also called retail clinics, or “nurse in a box” are health care facilities, which may be located in supermarkets, pharmacies, retail markets, malls etc. These facilities are usually concerned on treating minor ailments or taking disease prevention measures. They may be staffed with nurses, assistant physicians or doctors (Sekscenski, 1994). Ailments mostly treated in these facilities include adult and children family diseases such as minor injuries, allergy, common cold, headaches, ear infections, soar throat, diarrhoea, rashes etc. Some can also offer pregnancy and flu testing. Since Walk in clinics are concerned about minor ailments, very few doctors are found in such facilities. Therefore, the services and medical facilities available in these centres cannot be compared with those in a standard hospital. Additionally, there are regulations on the services performed, which make it hard for doctors to be involved in the operations carried out in these facilities. In London, most hospitals are generally understaffed with doctors. A study carried out by the Royal College of physicians established that the doctor -patient ratio is 1: 500, which is one doctor per five hundred patients (Smitt, 2010). This makes it hard for other health facilities such as walk in clinics to receive enough doctors who will ...