Last night on call; reflections on out-of-hours

摘要

It was last Christmas, with no surgeries open and a rota covering three practices for a rural population of about 8000 patients over 24 hours. In all there were six home visits and four calls to the minor injuries unit at the local community hospital, the first at 8.40am on Christmas morning, and the last at 5.30am on Boxing Day. The cases were oesophageal stricture, epilepsy, appendicitis, depression, asthma, tracheitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cervical spondolosis, suturing, and the ‘morning after’ pill. None were dramatic, and none unnecessary. Indeed in 40 years of ‘on call’ I have only had two really unnecessary calls.