Need to vent

[Mazza23]

I was told by my cardio to go to emergancy For a CV as I was in AF and realy unwell ,when I got there the doctor came to me and told me I would not be having a CV as they could try lots of drugs first when I told her I couldn't take the drugs I have lqts she said well I will give you the benifit of the doubt on that one but anyway you are 72 . To cut along story short my cardio came in and all was well talk about don't get stressed

[JonathanPittsCrick]

You have to understand that LQTS is pretty rare and most emergency docs will have seen maybe one or two in their life, so they won't know what to do about it.

That's why we have specialists.

[Mazza23 in reply to JonathanPittsCrick]

But aren't they supposed to look at your notes???

[JonathanPittsCrick in reply to Mazza23]

Hospital casenotes are usually not available in A&E, especially out-of-hours*.

Incidentally, this is why the government's trying to enforce the new contract on junior docs is so unreasonable – they won't pay for medical records (or most other admin.) staff to work routinely out-of-hours so the problems of 24/7 acute hospital service will be nowhere near being solved just by forcing the docs to work weekends for no extra pay.

As usual they are trying to get a quart out of a pint pot – making unrealistic promises for improvement with no funding and claiming it's someone else's fault when it doesn't work.

*also, to save money, A&E records (including ECGs) are not included in the main case notes so when I see someone in outpatients I have no record of their attendance in A&E since the last visit – and I can't get hold of them while the clinic is still running.

[Mazza23 in reply to JonathanPittsCrick]

In most cases I agree with you. But it wasn't out of hours and she had my notes just had not looked sat them i think docs and nurse do a wonderful job in very difficult circumstances and all but twice I have been treated with the utmost care but in the end it was my life on the line

[JonathanPittsCrick in reply to Mazza23]

OK I agree she should have looked at the notes – but that brings me to another point. I finally split with the NHS last year, primarily because I insisted that I needed 30 minutes to see a new patient and 20 minutes for a follow-up visit and the management said this was "inefficient": it should take only half that time. Working independantly I allow twice that time.

I don't know what your casenotes look like but I wonder if your doc would have time to read them through AND listen to you AND examine you AND explain what she thought was the matter AND arrange your treatment AND write a letter to your GP in the 10-15 minutes allowed...

[Mazza23 in reply to JonathanPittsCrick]

I am not in the UK and have been told they have 4hrs to assess decide corse of treatment. Admit or treat in emergency we are building lots of new hosp then the gov are cutting funding to staff them so things are getting bad here to I have been waiting 18 months for ablation

[teach2learn]

Hooboy, I worry about my son in law just starting out as a general surgeon, with stories like this. Even though we're in the U.S., things are heading this way..only with fits and starts as we work our way to it through the unacknowledged back door. But then, I'm a worrier. Probably why I have AF too. That, and looking at this site at 3 a.m.