Back after 3 days off to my last set of MAU day shifts. Very long day today, I wasnt assigned to a bay so floated between all of them, doing jobs and clerking an endless stream of patients with chest pain, PR bleeding, abdominal pain and jaundice, the ubiquitous collapse?cause and 'general unwellness'.
Clerked a dear old man earlier, thought he might be delirious so applied the Abbreviated Mental Test Score (AMTS) before taking the rest of the history (a consultant once advised me that if they score really badly - as in have no idea where/who/when/what they are - then the rest of the history can be a lot shorter as everything they say is likely to be inaccurate). One of the components of the AMTS is to remember an address. Most questions I asked this chap thereafter were answered with "42 West Street" and there came a delighted screech of "42 West Street!" whenever I approached or passed the bed.
Spent a significant amount of time trying to track down a covering letter for a GP admission which had arrived with a different patient's admission letter from a different GP surgery. Finally got on the phone to the correct surgery:
- Hello, this is one of the doctors calling from MAU at the hospital, hoping to speak to one of your doctors about one of your patients we've had admitted.
- Which GP is it?
- Dr Jones.
- He's dead.
- He's dead!?
- Yes, has been for several years.
- Er..
Wasn't expecting that one!
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