That's How It Happened

Twice a year, on the first Wednesday of each August and February, half the junior doctors in the NHS change jobs. Medical students graduate to housejobs, housemen become senior house men, and senior house men rotate around to different specialties. Folk wisdom has it, that you should never ever visit a hospital on that day. Perversely though, in our new risk managed, health 'n' safety culture, that day (today) has become one of the safest days to be disease-stricken. All our most junior doctors are spending today and tomorrow being inducted into their new jobs. They are busy learning where the fire escapes are, how to lift the immobile without sustaining back injury, and how to order a panopoly of different investigations. In their place the clinical work is being performed by registrars, consultants, and experienced antipodean locums, saving up for their plane fare home. So the take home message is that if you're feeling even slightly ill, make your trip to A&E tonight or tomorrow; because by Friday every NHS hospital will be a vision of chaotic hell, featuring "horrible despair, hatred of God, vile words, curses and blasphemies".
PS That's a stethoscope added to the day of the dead skeleton, in what is possibly my first ever Photoshop work on this blog.

Tags: nhs, hell