----- Original Message -----
From: "ae_res"
Subject: Re: Turn them around
> Our physicians have decided they will no longer take
> patients with fractures unless the fracture is
> secondary to a medical condition that needs sorting.
> So simple falls with pubic ramus fractures in elderly
> or patients with Colles fractures admitted because
> they live alone and can't cope are being sent to
> orthos now! I'm standing back to watch the fireworks!
I think that's brilliant Fred. General physicians have become the "dumping
ground" for just about everything these days; we may feel put upon, but the
general medics experience the same thing. Over the last 20 years I've seen
general physicians become more dumped on by everyone. Not only do they take
pubic ramus fractures and colles fractures (clearly medical conditions!?)
but they now also take abdo pains that the surgeons don't want, limb
cellulitis and back pain that the orthopods don't want, leg ulcers that the
surgeons don't want, pyelonephritis that urologists don't want, and any old
social condition that nobody wants. Pretty soon, I bet they'll be taking
head injuries because the local surgeons aren't trained in the management of
head injuries. Did anyone else notice the irony that Professor Galasko (an
orthopod) was on the NICE head injury guidelines working group, the same man
who'd spent the previous 10 years telling everyone that surgeons aren't
qualified to look after head injuries?
Adrian Fogarty
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