THE ACCIDENT & EMERGENCY department should be a training ground for every young doctor and medical student.
That’s the opinion of emergency medicine physician, Dr Frank Bishop, who is of the view that a stint in the A&E unit would contribute to making a physician well rounded and with a better understanding of the discipline of medicine.
Bishop, 52, who co-founded the FMH medical clinic in 1997, made this suggestion at the A&E’s 20th anniversary awards dinner at Hilton Barbados on Saturday night.
“As an important aspect of their training, the doctors need to have a three-month rotation in emergency room so that they can put together all of what they have learnt in medical school.
“It is only in the Accident & Emergency Department that you are able to really see a patient for the first time and have to make a decision based on what you are seeing.
“When you are working on the wards, when you see a patient, that decision has already been made for you whether it is a medical patient or surgical patient. But in ER, you have to see the patient, make a decision and institute treatment, and that is what practising medicine is all about, seeing a patient, making a diagnosis and starting treatment,” Bishop explained.
Bishop also said he would like medical students to take the Emergency Room (ER) process more seriously.
“I think if young doctors would take it more seriously, they would see that this is how they can put together all that they have learnt so far into what medicine is going to be all about.”
Bishop said that the A&E department, formerly the Casualty unit, had undeservedly got some flak at times from the public. He said doctors and nurses had been assaulted, abused and seldom got praise but had provided the best care in trying circumstances.
Special invitation
His comments on the contribution made by A&E doctors over the years were echoed by former chief Dr Raana Naidu, who was specially invited in for the occasion.
Naidu, who is based in the United States, went down memory lane, noting the peaks and troughs of the department.
Kiran Surage and Allison Olalehe shared the Employee Of The Year award, while there were meritorious long-service awards for Naidu, Dr Reginald King and Dr Haresh Thani.
