August

The new doctors start today, all over the country newly qualified FY1's will be starting their first jobs on the way to being consultants or whatever. Every department will get new FY2's and maybe ST grades as well, this is going to be fun for the next week or two until they settle down. The jobbing doctor has posted about it here. The big problem that we as an A&E department have is trying to change the doctors priorities, what they learned on the wards is not necessarily what we want them to do and also the nursing staff in A&E have different priorities, we do things differently. Never mind, they will get the idea soon enough.
Today though, I want to mention the doctors who have just left. In a time when there seems to be a lot of them and us and Dr. Crippen repeatedly alienates nurses, I want to take this opportunity to say that the doctors who have left my little part of the NHS were without exception excellent. They were good clinicians, they were nice people and it was a pleasure to work with them. Many seemed to be going into General Practice so despite The Jobbing Doctors misgivings, GP land (at least in Scotland) is going to be well catered for. No names, but I will miss you all and I wish you all success. I hope that your replacements are as good.
The Jobbing Doctor in his post mentioned that this is not a good time to go into hospital as the junior doctors are new and can make mistakes. I have commented that I have read somewhere that in fact the junior doctors are full of enthusiasm and tend to over treat and in fact the death rate goes down in August. Unfortunately I don't know where I found that particular gem and I don't know even if it is true. So if anyone has the real figures I would appreciate the reference.