----- Original Message -----
From: "Plunkett, Patrick
Subject: Re: A & E reforms
> I was fascinated with the earlier post (deleted without replying, so I
can't
> remember from whom) which talked about "down to 2 majors cubicles free ---
> down to none". In our department, we have labelled all our cubicles as
1a,
> 1b 2a, 2b etc. We double up EVERY day - 60 cm between the trolleys -
> wouldn't want to be a big clinician!!
Sounds like it's the physicians who should go on strike, not the nurses!
> Well, we'll soldier on - remember that SHO changeover in the Emereld Isle
is
> at 8am on January 1st
This has always fascinated me about the ROI. The January 1st changeover
seems such a bad idea, for several reasons. Firstly the New Year's Eve
activity tends to continue until lunchtime, blending with a "secondary" rush
of people who didn't manage to make it the night before, so New Year's Day
is equally hideous. Added to that the likelihood that some of your seniors
and middle-grades will expect to be off as they've just covered Christmas,
or else they've just covered the night before. Finally it causes all sorts
of headaches for those juniors who are trying to link in with UK schemes; I
know, I've done that "cross-border" transition twice now! Of course you know
all this Patrick, but has anyone tried to change it?
It would be relatively easy to move the changeover back by one month (moving
it forward would, on the other hand, be more problematic). If you plan 1 to
2 years in advance, then it's just a matter of offering the juniors 7-month
or 13-month contracts so that the posts end up changing on 1st February or
1st August. In the UK we felt so strongly about the dangers of changeover
that we further tweaked it a few years back, so that it now occurs on the
first Wednesday of February and August, rather than the 1st, which was
always harder to manage, especially if it occurred at a weekend.
It's just a thought, but I suspect it's the emergency physicians who suffer
most from this "anomaly", and ironically you guys seem to have too much on
your plate with other matters at the moment to worry about this particular
problem. Enjoy your leave!
Adrian Fogarty
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