> Casualty comes from the word casual attender i.e. someone
> who could go
> to hospital without a GP referral.
I'd always thought of it as Adrian's derivation. This one makes sense,
though. (Didn't it use to be called 'surgical outpatients').
Name should be determined by what we do. If we spend most of our time seeing
medical emergencies, we're emergency physicians; if trauma, traumatologists
(if both, 'Emergency Physician and Traumatologist seems appropriately
pompous); if minor injuries/ minor medical problems, we're minor injury
specialists (longwinded, but I don't think 'Minor Physician' would be too
popular within the specialty). If you triage away the problems that aren't
true emergnecies, 'Emergency Doctor' seems about right (although possible
public perception problem- sounds a bit close to 'Doctor of Last Resort').
If we see and sort out whatever comes through the door, 'Casualty Doctor/
Physician/ Surgeon seems pretty appropriate by the above derivation. If you
think the work is appropriate, there shouldn't be a problem with the term.
If not, triage away/ take on other roles and leave the name to change
itself.
As to 'triage at best'. Bit of a problem with the image of triage. If you're
good at triage, it's good for patients and cost effective (being good at it
isn't easy though).
Matt Dunn
Work Generating Incompetent
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