Training Day 2: Surgery

My second day at Moorfields began with a walk through the surgery wing with the theatre manager, who explained how the layout of the facility is designed to create a circle that reduces opportunities for contamination.  All surgical tools and materials are labeled and inventoried so that should there be an episode of contamination, it is then possible to go back and trace all potentially contaminated items. 

I've had my share of being left in hospital or doctor waiting rooms, but until this week only as a patient.  A surgery was scheduled for first thing in the morning of my visit, but was delayed because one of the doctors was involved in a minor car accident and had to sort things out with the police before he could get work.  And so we had to wait, and as a result all the surgeries for that day got pushed back.  

I observed three surgeries and was most impressed by how busy the staff were.  There was no down time, no time to have a coffee and discuss a case.  As soon as one procedure was complete, the doctors and nurses washed up and went on to the next.  I didn't stay the whole day, but I imagine many of the staff on many days eat on the run, if they eat at all.  To be able to keep up such a pace requires great confidence in one's knowledge and abilities.  I was suitably impressed.  

And I image I may be even more so once I arrive in India.  But perhaps in a different way.  The Moorfields theatre manager was telling me about some of his procurement issues and how he is often able to leverage the hospital's name and reputation with suppliers.  Part of that reputation comes from the use of leading procedures and technology, a condition that will be quite different in rural India.  

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