Easy; it's not our problem. I believe that everyone who needs review
should be reviewed the next day, but as this is not possible on Friday
I'll go with the next working day unless I'm worried about collateral
issues such as compartment syndrome.
What we need to remember is that while we may have a good grasp on how
soon any particular problem should be seen, we don't see the majority of
patients, and so a simple rule of thumb with few exceptions works best
for the tyro SHO. "All fractures that aren't admitted go to the next
available fracture clinic." is easy to remember and safe.
In my first Consultant post we had next working day review. In my
present post, the delay is greater and may be up to a week. Having said
that, we can sometimes if particularly worried get someone into a
specific clinic for a specific problem, which I much appreciate. I
regard my role in this as purely expressing disquiet to the orthopaedic
team if the delays in general get too long, but it is up to them to act
to change things if they are concerned. I'm not here to sort their
service out.
> *From:* "Black, John" <[log in to unmask]>
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Date:* Tue, 18 Jul 2006 10:25:50 +0100
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> I would be interested in your views about the maximum acceptable
> period of
> time patients should be reviewed in a fracture clinic after initial
> management in the ED, accepting that this should be a short time as
> possible. I am aware that clinical practice varies around the UK.
> Please feel free to contact me off list if you prefer.
> John Black
> Oxford
>
>
> --
> *Included Files:*
> am2file:001-HTML_Message.html
/Rowley./
|