(no subject)
An actual conversation that transpired:
Cardiology reg (over the phone): This woman failed her exercise stress test. She developed T-wave inversion, and the test had to be stopped because she became dizzy. She needs to be admitted under Cardiology, and has to go to a monitored bed. Tell the med reg to admit her. We're sending her back to you now.
Me: Hold on, you can't send her back here. This ward doesn't have monitoring. Do you have a number I can call you back on? I'll talk to the bosses on the other side of the department to sort out a place and ring you back.
Cardiology reg: I'm not giving you a number. We're not keeping this woman here. I am sending her back down.
Me: This ward has no cardiac monitoring capacity. I need to let the guys on the other side know. Acute and resus are both backed up and we need to make arrangements. (meaning, patients were backed up into the corridor still stuck on ambulance trolleys, and all available beds were already occupied in the rest of the department.)
Cardiology reg: Well, she's not on monitoring now, so it's no different.
Me: You've just told me she has ischaemic changes. Maybe she should be on monitoring. (note, at exercise stress test, they're put on treadmills with an ECG trace running. The logic of finding that someone develops ischaemic changes and then taking them *off* monitoring...)
Cardiology reg: She's not staying here. I'm sending her back to you. Talk to the med reg-
Me: Listen. She cannot come to this ward. I need to make arrangements for somewhere she can go. I'll let the med reg know. (at which point I handed the phone to the nurse who was also trying to co-ordinate this and was gesturing that she had an update for him..and got told off by him as she too tried to explain why the patient couldn't come to the ward..)
Sometimes, I really do wish you could just reach down the phone and slap people.
~~~
Amy: Go look at the manual.
Doctor: I can't. I threw it in a supernova.
Amy: You threw the manual in a supernova? Why?
Doctor: Because I disagreed with it. Stop talking to me when I'm cross.
-Doctor Who