From the surgical take
What I see looking after surgical patients, and what the evidence says about it. Where I use published data, the sources are at the bottom.
7 pieces, newest first
Getting surgical patients a decision in under an hour
We got the time from arriving at the front door to a decision under an hour. It’s just doing the simple things right.
DISH: one language for surgical wounds
Count the same surgical wounds four ways and you get four infection rates, from 6.8% to 19.2%. DISH is an attempt at one language for them.
The patients anaesthetists look after are sicker than they were in 2013
Fewer of the patients anaesthetists see are fit and well than a decade ago, and it matches what I see at the surgical front door.
Breast screening every 3 years: what about the years between?
If you’re a woman in your fifties, or your mum or sister is, that screening letter is easy to treat as full protection. It isn’t. A mammogram is one X-ray on one day, and a change you notice in the gap still goes to your GP practice.
Emergency surgery and frailty: what the medical side of the surgical front door actually does
In older, frail patients, the operation is the surgeons’ job. This is what the medical side does around it, with the national audit figures.
“Fit for surgery” is the wrong question
“Is he fit for surgery?” is the question I get asked most. It’s usually the wrong question.
Why surgical patients need a physician
We need surgeons doing the operating, and we need physicians dealing with everything else. That’s surgical medicine.