Owner : My dog is choking! I think there’s something stuck in his throat!
Vet nurse : Ok, come straight down.
Owner : Oh but I’ve just put up the potatoes on the stove. I’ll be there in half an hour.
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4 am
Owner : Yeah….ummm..my dog – she’s got these lumps on her back …do you know what they are?
Vet : ummm…no?
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Owner : Look – I’ve got a really sick cat. I need to see a vet straight away!
Vet nurse : We are fully booked this morning. I can make the appointment after 4.
Owner : NO NO! I really need a vet NOW!
Vet nurse : What’s the problem with your cat?
Owner : Well, he’s been sick for a couple of weeks…….
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Dog growls when approached. Ears back and hackles up.
Owner : Oh, he’s just saying hello.
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Why *I* need an extended holiday from work, or “Push me far enough and my homicidal tendencies might just get the better of me”.
Scene 1: Emergency department.
Heretofore dedicated young doctor is in the Emergency Department, in the final hours of her gruelling night shift (Weekend nights – lots of drunks falling over and cutting themselves, suicide attempts etc etc. Always busy).
Next chart in the box: 45 year old male
Presenting complaint: 2 month history of shoulder pain.
I didn’t pick up the chart. If I had, the only treatment I would have provided would have been to inform him of how terribly stupid and irresponsible he was to turn up at an Emergency department when we have more important things to deal with. Like people who might be dying.
Scene 2: Parents of a 16 year old intellectually and physically handicapped boy bring him in with an ulcer on his big toe. The ulcer has been present 3 weeks, and is weeping malodorous pus all over the place. It’s at the point of becoming gangrenous (ie ROTTING). There is suggestion of BONY involvement. Needs reviewing by an orthopaedic surgeon for possible amputation.
They complain about having waited 4 hours to be seen.
ARGH!!! you waited three weeks at home before you bothered to do anything about it and now you want us to neglect all the folks with chest pain, all the kids who have had febrile seizures, for your child’s foot?!
oh oh, wait, I thought of another one!
Scene 3: Same hospital Emergency department. Patient this time is a young female. She’s been feeling tired a few days. She went to her local doctor’s surgery, but the doctor was on holidays, so SHE CAME TO THE HOSPITAL.
SOMEBODY MAKE IT STOP!
Of course funding crises are the biggest problem in the Health system at present, but I really do think we are overburdened with large numbers of patients who think they are entitled to EMERGENCY care just because they can’t be bothered making an appointment with a GP (there are plenty in the area who bulk bill). And it’s these same people who then complain about waiting times. If people didn’t present with such frivolous complaints, NO ONE would have to wait so long to be seen.
ps. T can you delete the date from the first case? I just realised it might be “identifying information”. thanks.