Another scorcher. Cycled to work today in short shorts (icebreaker – but still). Curse you climate change! This could be the actual moment of the end of civilisation as we know it.
More NHS musings (trigger warning – work related content)
The angio suite has no tea or coffee making facilities! I’m certain this contravenes the Geneva convention.
Speaking of torture, not sure if the clever Cambridge scientists have done something sneaky to the Periodic Table, or if it’s to do with the local gravity field, but the lead jackets here are extraordinarily heavy. By the end of my day in radiology I was several inches shorter than when I started.
Patients aren’t cancelled for lack of ICU beds here – they go ahead with complex cases and if necessary they can be looked after overnight in a special area of recovery. On the other hand, patients do get cancelled or delayed for lack of ward beds – often. So, our elective neuroradiology list today had three cases which we should have been comfortably able to finish on time, however, none of them had a definite bed this morning. We eventually got one for our first patient, so we started about an hour late. After we finished that, we were on hold again until we found out about the bed status of the second patient. Finally we got the go ahead, but by the time we finished that one, the bed status of the final patient was immaterial (and yes, they had one) because we’d run out of time. Infuriating. And get this: our odds were worse because all our patients were women! Rooms are strictly gender segregated here.
How do they make ID badges always turn inwards, no matter which way you wear your lanyard?
Why is hospital wifi all around the world so shit?
(controversial). There’s a low but insidious background level of free form, wide ranging moaning that goes on, like soft and gently falling summer rain. In the same way as bitching about people behind their backs, it’s quietly addictive but also rather corrosive, I believe. I’ll just put that out there.
The charming Canadian registrar working with me today asked me how far along in my training I was. I was quite gratified by this until I figured it was probably due to the fact that as an observer, I’m basically entirely useless over here.