The NHS would prefer patients to see their GP for post-operative care rather than waste the “precious time and expertise” of the surgeons.
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Yes why indeed? To me the NHS’ suggestion seems sensible. To remove stitches and watching surgical wounds heal is as exciting as watching paint dry and demands the expertise of a trained monkey. At my hospital, most of that is left to the nurses.
To the contrary, my residency director often quipped that he could train a monkey to do surgery, it was the postoperative care that required a surgeon. Postoperative complications may be subtle in presentation and delay in their recognition can be devastating. It is my belief, and my surgical subspeciality organization’s belief, that postoperative visits should done by the surgeon or at least by a trained professional supervised by the surgeon with the surgeon immediately available for consultation if necessary.
“To remove stitches and watching surgical wounds heal is as exciting as watching paint dry and demands the expertise of a trained monkey. At my hospital, most of that is left to the nurses.”
And how the nurses must love you, seeing as how you equate them to monkeys.
Isn’t there some value to a surgeon having to do the follow-up in order to see the results of his or her work? — otherwise they’re just cutting machines, never knowing if the patient had a brilliant outcome or if, perhaps, some minor tweaks to the surgical genius might have avoided a minor complication.
I swear Isberg you have to be related to the last surgeon I had. I can’t imagine that you have ever had even one patient that you actually have cared about.
Its just a job, isn’t it?
This post and the Canadian pharmacist post are stark examples of the failure of socialized medicine.
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