"And what is wrong with being an accident specialist? The opposite argument
would be that you are selling out by pretending to be a physician!!!! You
chastise those who want to do surgical procedures yet you wish to take over
the domain of the physician. Is this not hypocritical??"

Yes it might be if it were true. I don't recall chastising anyone - just
asking questions. And I'm neither selling out, pretending to be anything,
nor wishing to take over anyones domain. Unless you're suggesting the
assessment, resuscitation and emergency treatment of sick medical patients
is someone else's domain.


">Why don't we stop bickering and...."

When did we start? I asked four questions!

"Just because someone has a soft tissue injury rather than a rip roaring MI
doesn't make them any less deserving of our respect or treatment."

Couldn't agree more. However I would certainly not afford them the same
degree of urgency. And when there are inadequate middle grades and
consultants I will deploy them where they are most needed. As Matt Dunn
says, that isn't always going to be in majors. However I personally have
difficulty with the idea of spending my time with non-emergency matters
(minor ops, clinics) if that leaves no-one senior to supervise the
management of the sick.


"Horses for courses, I say!"

That's the way it'll have to be. The diversity of our specialty certainly
keeps things interesting but the lack of agreement has allowed others to
define our role for us. The combination of local gaps in service and
consultant's subspecialty interests (and now goverment targets) has perhaps
determined our job spec more than an agreed pursuit of excellence in the
initial management of the sick and injured.

" We are a great specialty and should support each other.
P.S.  I've started to cry now so I'll go and lie down in a darkened room."

Don't cry, you'll make me cry. Group hug?


Cheers

Cliff Reid
Emergency Physician / Sell-out / Bickering Hypocrite ;O>



>
>"Even minors like terminalisations, facial suturing, tendon
>repair- what are your numbers going to be like."
>
>I don't do terminalisations or tendon repairs. What is it that makes people
>think these are appropriate A&E interventions whereas other operations
>should be referred to surgeons? Surely it is the orthopaedic ancestry of
>our
>specialty. How else could one justify taking a consultant away from the
>teeming masses of trolley emergencies and otherwise unsupervised juniors
>for
>an hour at a time? And since when does a patient who can come come back to
>a
>clinic constitute an 'emergency'? I fear there are still far more accident
>specialists then emergency physicians in the UK. No wonder there is a
>perceived need for 'acute medicine specialists'. We're too busy with
>swollen
>knees and fingertips to worry about the acutely ill. I maintain that with
>our SHO-based minor injury service we're a long way off from deserving any
>credibility.
>
>Am I not a proper A&E consultant if I don't have these minor surgical
>interests? This thread is really making me feel rather australasian. Except
>when I read Steve Meek's comments.
>
>Cliff Reid
>
>_________________________________________________________________
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