I've just had the most staggering conversation with a radiologist. I was requesting an urgent CT scan on a young patient with acute onset of headache, left sided hemiplegia and a history of previous SAH secondary to an AVM. The radiologist smiled and said:
"Has this lady been seen by a clinician yet?"
When I suggested that I was the clinician dealing with this patient (and to imply I was not a clinician was somewhat insulting) he refused to accept my standing and insisted that she be seen by "a clinician".
It would appear that five years of general training, five years of specialist training, three postgraduate exams and a consultant job in waiting is not enough to be classed as a clinician.
Besides this general insult was the opinion that a CT for a ?sub arachnoid was urgent and not an emergency as it would make no difference to the immediate outcome. Now within reason I can just about understand this. I don't request CT scans at 5am for 95 year olds with acute hemiplegias but at 16.35 for a lady in her 30s?
Am I completely out of touch with reality?
Dr Simon McCormick
SpR Emergency Medicine (on of the last clinical specialties left)
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