Get you in the end

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N0w2rORwSc

I have just finished my rotation in surgery - general surgery, but specifically colorectal. I have also done "surgical take" - where patients come in with usually bellyache but pretty much anything that could be a surgical problem. This happens in the "Surgical Assessment Unit". There is a room there, for seeing patients initally. This room contains a bed, a sink, a table, three boxes of assorted sized gloves, and a box full of bottles of KY jelly. Many people who come in with abdominal pain - in fact, almost all - should have a rectal examination and this is the place it's done. Regulars to the SAU know the room. One such man - with a colitis that keeps him returning - I've seen a few times over the four months. He makes a joke of it each time. "After all this, I'll have to buy you dinner sometime."

Swine Flu abounds

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/swine-flu/5990603/Girl_dies_of_meningitis_after_swine_flu_diagnosis.html

So, a little girl has died, after swine flu was diagnosed, by a paramedic. She, in fact, had meningococcal septicaemia.

Yes, meningitis is missed sometimes, and it's awful every time. But, from what I have read, this little girl was not given much of a chance to be properly assessed.

Children will still get meningitis despite the pig death. Shouldn't they be assessed and treated in the same way they always did? Is this going to happen again? The SWINE LINE - non medical people prescribing medication after someone ticks some boxes on a computer detailing non specific symptoms - seems to indicate that it would be suprising if it does not.