 |
 |
I think you'll find broad support for the idea that A&E doctors have special expertise in managing the critically ill patient. As for the ward based patient who deteriorates - well that's a bit more tricky. Philosophically it's a nice idea but pragmatically it's just too difficult to sort out. I'm not sure I should be running around the wards sorting out the various disasters that no doubt occur there. These patients have complex inpatient histories and their current team is best placed to deal with them, together with intensivists who can offer resources as well as expertise. As for the present conditional tense, I think I'll defer to Cliff Reid on that one! :-) Regards Adrian Fogarty ----- Original Message ----- From: Dunn Matthew Dr. ACCIDENT & EMERGENCY - SwarkHosp-TR <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, September 25, 2000 5:02 PM Subject: RE: Obs wards > By the way, do I stand alone in my belief that we have special expertise in > managing the unstable critically ill patient. It seems logical that if we > have developed the expertise for managing these patients in A and E, we also > have the expertise for advising on ward based patients who deteriorate > unexpectedly. (If I do stand alone, sorry to have troubled you. I'll just > pull my head under the parapet again). > > Another aside: seems my last message was misinterpreted. When I said 'we are > underworked at present', I meant this as a potential reason for taking on > more work, not a statement of fact; and intended 'we' to imply the > specialty. (I believe I was using the present conditional. I think that if > you use a Latin based prescriptive grammar instead of a descriptive grammar, > I should have said 'were' and altered the previous sentence. I prepare to be > corrected on the grammatical points.) > > Matt Dunn > Warwick %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%