Dermatology has now retrenched to larger units based in main hospitals, and managers have recently started promoting ‘care closer to home’, proposing community sessions often conducted by non-specialist staff. While patients like the concept of less travel (and avoiding expensive hospital car parks), they soon come to realise the disadvantages. In our experience, patients are happy to travel in order to get a full package of treatment in a way that community clinics can rarely provide. Overwhelmingly, patients want to be treated as individuals and accordingly appropriate flexibility and judgement should be applied when providing treatment.
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