A glorified secretary
It's been 4 days now and I am still stuck in the oubliette, forgotten and alone.
I cannot believe I went through medical school so that I could sit in a hole and type letters. I became a doctor so that I could have patient contact but instead, I am sitting and listening to Mugglecast whilst sifting through patient notes and writing discharge summaries!
Occasionally, the internal records server would suffer an aneurysm, which would force me to surf the internet until it recovers. The first time this happened, I tried to escape to the main department in the hope of actually seeing some patients. Unfortunately, I was captured and marched back to my cell by the uniformed guards (ie. Matron and her evil Sidekicks). They chained me to the desk. As punishment, they confiscated my water source. Now, I can't make my own tea. Oh, the humanity.
Apparently, no self-respecting secretary would take this job. The only secretary employed to fill this post could not handle the continual pressure of having to decode stacks of medical hieroglyphics for nine hours a day and resigned only after a few weeks.
These letters have to be sent to the GP within a week of the patient's discharge, otherwise the GPs can fine the hospital a rather hefty sum which is calculated per letter. Hence, Human resources have decided to incorporate 'letter days' into the junior doctor's rota - guess it is more cost-effective to pay doctors than to pay fines.
I cannot believe I went through medical school so that I could sit in a hole and type letters. I became a doctor so that I could have patient contact but instead, I am sitting and listening to Mugglecast whilst sifting through patient notes and writing discharge summaries!
Occasionally, the internal records server would suffer an aneurysm, which would force me to surf the internet until it recovers. The first time this happened, I tried to escape to the main department in the hope of actually seeing some patients. Unfortunately, I was captured and marched back to my cell by the uniformed guards (ie. Matron and her evil Sidekicks). They chained me to the desk. As punishment, they confiscated my water source. Now, I can't make my own tea. Oh, the humanity.
Apparently, no self-respecting secretary would take this job. The only secretary employed to fill this post could not handle the continual pressure of having to decode stacks of medical hieroglyphics for nine hours a day and resigned only after a few weeks.
These letters have to be sent to the GP within a week of the patient's discharge, otherwise the GPs can fine the hospital a rather hefty sum which is calculated per letter. Hence, Human resources have decided to incorporate 'letter days' into the junior doctor's rota - guess it is more cost-effective to pay doctors than to pay fines.
posted by tscd at 1:28 am
2 Comments:
Poor thing. You sound like the lead character in badly written Gothic novel - perhaps one called "The Prisoner of Paperwork" = )
But seriously, I know what you mean. Teachers (the good ones) join the profession to teach, but find they have to do a fair amount of administrative work. Some of it, admittedly, is necessary, but none of it is fun.
wahj: 'A badly written gothic novel'? You wound me! I stagger around in fifteen kinds of agony before expriring on the nearest chaise longue.
Seriously, I didn't expect to spend 3 days (including the weekend!) simply doing paperwork and not actually looking after patients. I don't see why the paperwork couldn't wait until Monday. Whatever. At least I'm getting paid.
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