Poultry

Now that COVID 19 has fallen off our radar at work, at least temporarily, the riskiest thing I did all weekend was to eat several chicken meals from the hospital staff cafeteria. You may laugh but one of the junior doctors I was working with yesterday told me about the weekend she worked in our ICU last year. She was doing 15 hour days Saturday and Sunday, and got a hot chicken dish on Saturday night. It tasted fine but when she got home a couple of hours later she started getting tummy cramps and broke into a cold sweat. She ended up vomiting all night, and only started to improve with daylight. Knowing it would be really hard to cover her shift, and now that she wasn’t throwing up any more, she went back to work on the Sunday and worked another full day. I disagree with that behaviour, I might add, but “presenteeism” is very common in doctors. Call me cynical, but I don’t think patients care if their doctor has had any sleep or not, especially in ICU. It’s up to us to look after ourselves – no one is irreplaceable, although finding a replacement can be inconvenient (and no one likes letting down colleagues).
Actually my meals over the weekend were delicious and I’ve had no ill effects. They were even free, which is naughty as it’s only meant to be junior doctors who get free food. I usually have to pay for mine, but because our cases were so complex I couldn’t leave the theatre suite, and the junior doctors bought my food when they got theirs. I expect this is highly illegal and probably counts as “theft as a servant”. If things go badly for me I might need to ask if any of you know of any jobs going for a middle aged anaesthetist in a hospital near you. Pay negotiable but any chance meals could be included?