Christmas Weekend- The Killing Season

The staff on the wards are edgy knowing that something is afoot & approaching. Its Friday, the last working day before the long Christmas weekend.

During these 4 days, everything routine will grind to a halt. No blood tests, no X-rays, no specialist consultations, no operations, no procedures, NOTHING!. The hospital enters a state of "emergency" where only urgent problems will be dealt with.

In fact, most patients in hospital, will not be seen by a doctor for 4 days unless an problem or emergency develops. They’ll lie languishing in a hospital bed, waiting to catch pneumonia, a bed sore or MRSA.

“People will die! Its like this every year” quipped a senior doctor during our special Christmas lunch in the doctor’s “mess” (staff room).

Instead, the hospital will be manned by a skeleton crew of nurses & doctors. This will is a testing time for any young doctor as they’ll be overstreched on the wards managing crisis after crisis.

I have spent the last 3 Christmases working in hospital & it has always been a harrowing & depressing time. Many relatives visiting Mum or Nan on the ward will be horrified to see their loved one in pain or ignored for days & will understandably demand to see a doctor.

“What’s going on with my Nan? She’s been crying out in agony for hours but no one has seen her!” No doubt this outburst has been partially fuelled by the guilt of a weekend of merriment & a sumptuous Christmas brunch.

The doctor will struggle to explain what’s going with Nan after all, he doesn’t know the patient & doesn’t normally care for them. He’s only covering emergencies & his pager keeps going off! The best he can do is prescribe pain killers & make a hasty retreat!

But these are the lucky patients. There will be many patients who lie in bed with no visitors or loved ones all weekend as they have always done for the past few weeks or month. These are the patients who will die if they run into problems as there will be no one to act as their minder or advocate. What about the nurses you ask? Surely they see their patients’ everyday? Let me just say that nursing care on the wards can be highly variable & I’ve seen nurses who will not call the doctor until the patient has one foot in death’s door!

So why not get extra doctors to work for a few days during this period? After all, we know that this is bound to happen at least once a year! The bottom line is money! There isn’t enough of it to hire extra doctors. Our hospital like many hospitals around the country is broke & the Department of Health (bless their cotton socks!) is treating hospitals like a private business. If there isn't enough money, tough!

So, on my last day at work yesterday, I was asked to represent the doctors & join the carollers singing Christmas songs in the hospital lobby. With my consultant playing the piano & the patients singing along to the tune of “Silent Night”, the scene was surreal. It was a scene akin to one in “Titanic” where the band continued to play & the passengers danced along as the ship was slowly sinking!

I’m off work this year! Merry Christmas!