On Call 36小時 The Hippocratic Crush
I have never worked for more than a 8 + 6 hours day as a first year doctor in New Zealand 10 years ago. The interns in Hong Kong used to do "36 hour" call every 3rd day in their first year - work one full day + overnight + another full day. This is the background to this recent HK drama, for which I have no spare time to watch.
Whenever the "juniors" complain these days, the consultants alway have the "I've been there, done that; so, poor you but, tough buddy" attitude.
The point however, is that healthcare has changed. Patient turnover used to be lower, patients stayed in hospital for much longer than they do now. Various forms of "computerized medical record" mean an admission of a 76 year old man with co-morbidities as long as your weekly shopping list can take the resident up to an hour - if you want to do a thorough job. We actually can do something for acute stroke, and the time window for that is getting longer and longer. Do you know, we used to treat heart failure with prolonged bed rest?
Granted, the life of an "oncall from home" neurology registrar is no where near as busy as the residents who are actually on site at the hospital. Yet, I'll leave with you this; try to be oncall for 7 days straight, with your sleep interrupted anytime at the mercy of some unforgiving and inexperienced junior staff in the emergency department.
It is of course common for consultants to still do 7 days call or even 1 month long call. As the public demand for health care increases, the frequency of calls are bound to increase, that's something (not) to look forward to!
