There's an evil Santa!

OMG, I just found out there is an evil santa!  You can find him at http://www.lettersfrombadsanta.com/ He makes toys like:

and

I hope the good one comes to visit me this Christmas! Merry Christmas everyone!

Mike

Road Tax Prorated

 With recent news that the latest in transport taxation is to charge per mile with varying costs to dissuade the public from travelling at peak times, I am concerned for the health of the nation and the spiralling costs for the NHS. As a junior doctor training in the NHS I am sure that leaving work early to avoid the weighty tax fine will be frowned upon and so will be staying late to stay in the black. My on call colleagues will be quite happy for an extra pair of hands for another hour or two each evening, but at what cost?

Hours monitoring will undoubtedly prove that my rota is no longer compliant with EWTD, and I shall involuntarily drain the NHS coffers at Band 3. So we all do this and the Trust becomes badly hurt.

Now I’m not getting home to my wife and son until after his bedtime and he gets abandonment issues, perhaps sparking some child psychiatric issues, so we take him to the Trust psychiatrist and drain some more resources. I’m getting pretty tired and run down so I’m taking more sick days. I’m covered by expensive locums and the NHS becomes almost bankrupted.

But it’s not just my job, my career, my colleagues. What if everyone stays at work an hour later, or makes a habit of stopping at the pub waiting for the peak time to be over. We all go home at seven o’clock and roads are jammed. We all get detached from our home lives and stay late at work. Depression and ill health rockets, the pub-goers have more accidents. Where will our over stretched NHS be then? Can we fund the deficit from the people who are still going home to see their families? Are they the richer folk who can afford the luxury of spending less time at work and more time at home? Is the government making a judgement that the poorer working classes ought to be at work longer and not making lasting relationships with their children, helping them to fight off the temptation of becoming ‘hoodies’?

After spending a half hour pondering the effects of altering road tax, I can foresee a nation of maladjusted youths who grow into a life of crime or workaholism, never see their kids, get depressed about it, resort to bad habits that make them unwell and bankrupt our health service. Perhaps altruism has its place after all.

First week in Stoke

OK, so it's not that bad. In fact, it's been a good start to a new job. I've discovered that there are some untruths circulating about Stoke hospital and the Potters. The people do smile at you in the corridor, and you do get some time to write your blog.

City General Hospital - Stoke on Trent

After starting here I was given the first weekend night shift possible, so had to know my way around the hospital before the arrest bleep started going off! There have been a few trauma cases, and a few ITU admissions, a few arterial lines and a few central lines to get me started, and it has been a pleasurable experience.

Home life is a little bit tougher, the extra hour and a bit's commuting gets me home later, closer to Josh's bedtime, so I'm getting fewer cuddles now.  One of the most noticeable things about working nights in a busy hospital is having to stay up all night, and actually go to sleep in the day!  Monday was a tough one, trying to convert back to days in one day is tough stuff - I just stayed up for 26 hours and had a good sleep.

If I thought that life was going to calm down for a bit, I was wrong.  Although I've got the exam, a few audits under my belt and just have to wait until March until I'm eligible for an SpR job, I do actually have to find said employment.  I guess I had assumed that I would be forced into the melée to find ST3 work next August - but against the odds I've been shortlisted for an SpR interview next week.  These interviews are renowned for being tricky to say the least.  I'll have to brush up on all the hot topics of the moment to see if I can scrape through.  Wish me luck!