O'er The Hills...

Here's Forty Shillings On The Drum
For Those Who'll Volunteer To Come...

And so the Three Line Whip. It has become apparent to me that increasingly, bods at work read this; so I can't pretend to be an heroic world saving, plague-curing stud monkey. I also have to watch who I slag off and / or eulogise. (Or for the crude, makes it harder to pass comment on the finer attributes of my female colleagues)

Anyway - I took the shilling. Years ago, I took it, but not blindly... or so I thought. But the goalposts have regularly changed. Still, took the shilling, can't argue now. The current party line to be towed remains the 4 hour target. Regular readers know what I think of this. To have medical care dictated by time based targets is, in my opinion, at best foolish, and, at worst, dangerous.

But:
All that stands in the way of our glorious hospital achieving the glory of the Third Reich (Foundation status) is the Emergency Department, and the pesky target. So, all must be done to meet the target. We must 'engage' with the target.

So Fall In Lads, Behind The Drum
With Colours Blazing Like The Sun

Our latest pep talk hammered this message home. The Nursing Staff are not finding the middle grade attitude helpful. By which they mean: 'when we tell Shroom about breach times, he tells us he couldn't give a fuck, and that ain't helpful'.

True.

It's not helpful, but I want to know if patients are unwell, or deteriorating, not that I must abandon treatment of sick patients to attend to well (-ish) patients who have been in the Dept a long time.

I guess it ain't their fault, so being rude just antagonises people. And, politically, it won't do me any favours, as my attitude gets referred from Nurses to Bosses to Management. I imagine, I will soon be referred for attitude readjustment, in a gulag somewhere. Or have my eyes pinned open, and be subjected to videos of people managing the breaches appropriately. (Clockwork Orange, anyone?)

If I Should Fall To Rise No More
As Many Comrades Have Before...

Interestingly, I was expecting the whip; it came as no surprise, and I have accepted I must tow the Party Line. Passive-aggressive pseudo-rebellion only goes so far. But my colleagues were upset and put out by it. They seem to have taken it personally; as a slight to their work ethic. Am I too jaded, too cynical to be bothered.

I'm not sure.

We follow the road, to come what may, nonetheless.