No Sense of Urgency

My Thursday night on-call made me realise that some people just do not have the sense of urgency.

A patient developed post-ERCP pancreatitis, and she was in a lot of pain despite being prescribed with pethidine and a few more painkillers. She was mean to go down to the X-ray department at about 8 pm to check for perforation (which is when you find a hole in the abdominal organ). A clerk from the x-ray dept called back saying that there are about 20 patients in front of her. The doctor in charged told the clerk that this is urgent because the patient looks rather unwell.

However 6 hours later, I was paged by the nurse looking after that patient. The patient's blood pressure dropped quite significantly and her urine output was very low. The patient was also in a lot of pain and was feeling sick. I was like, "shit." I made my way up to the ward quickly and assessed the patient. She was quite tender at her abdomen. I asked if the x-ray was done, and guess what? The answer was NO.

I was like what?! Those 20 ppl in front of her should have all been cleared. Her condition does not seem too good and a perforation really need to be reuled out. So the nurse called the x-ray dept and they quickly made their way up to get the patient. Thank god the patient did not have any perforation.

Talk about inefficiency man. They did not realise the urgency of the x-ray. What if she really had a perforation?? Patient may die. Therefore, the moral of the story is an urgent thing really is URGENT!