The Walking Wounded

Today, I'm trying to have a peaceful day, catching up with post and unwinding. It's been a traumatic week.

On Monday, I was about to go out to buy some fruit for a fruit salad I would be preparing for a friend who had invited us to a Passover meal.

Suddenly M came into the kitchen, saying, 'Can you help me?' He often says that if he wants me to be plumber's mate in some circumstances, and for a moment it didn't register that his hand was cut open and he was dripping blood all over the floor. I later found out that an industrial extract fan had shifted from its restraint and fallen forward on to his hand, the propeller blade, still rotating.

When I realised he was hurt, I rushed to get some bandage, and I saw that it was too serious for me to attempt anything more than that. I drove fast to the Royal Surrey County Hospital. We spent about three hours there, and during the next three days, much time at St George's Hospital, Tooting. M is now in a sling, after an operation on Tuesday, which involved having a skin graft to the back of his hand, and a steel pin put in his broken thumb.

What was good? The care at Surrey A & E, where M was shunted forward when he was in pain, given pain killerswhen he needed them and bandaged up and made comfortable by nurses before the doctor made an assessment. The care and medical attention given by the day surgery unit and at the subsequent stay in a ward at St George's, where every attention was paid to his needs. He had been referred there to be seen by the specialist hand unit. He was also given care by the overworked emergency doctor eventually, on Monday night, who put his thumb in a splintand put a few stitches in the torn flesh as a temporary measure, before deciding he must return to see the consultant surgeon.

What was bad? A total wait in A&E, Surrey of about three hours, despite good facilities. Checking in at Tooting which took much time because of new computer system, and a further total wait in A&E, Tooting, of about four hours, in a horrible packed waiting room with very poor facilities. These things can't be helped, I suppose. Limited staff - many people with problems - one man, probably suffering from learning difficulties, screaming and sobbing periodically. A lack of communication between hospitals and between departments - the X-rays taken at Royal Surrey not sent on to Tooting. The photograph taken by the A&E doctor on Monday night, not sent to the day surgery unit on the following day and the notes not delivered until after we had arrived for surgery. The room in which the A&E doctor had to examine M, looking like an old stockroom, and graced by an old swivel chair with the odd paint stain on it and a ghetto blaster humming in the background. (I sat on it, while M was on a bed, being dealt with.) The number of times the A&E doctor was called away and on his return had to don new gloves and discard the old ones.

However, despite all the grumbles about lack of communication and lack of good admin., I am thankful that in an emergency situation, he was attended to so promptly and then seen by such a good team. The health service is putting into place some sort of computer system that will enable staff in one place to view details of patients from another area. I will not be complaining about Big Brother. Having to answer the same questions three or four times in different places is a waste of time, both the patient's and the staff. It will be good to get a decent system in place, so that staff can concentrate on the healing and the caring for the sick and injured, which in M's case, they have done so well.