The Diary of a Doctor Who Tells

Evening Star, Issue 23497, 10 February 1940, Page 3

The Diary of a Doctor Who Tells

Giving Weary Workers a “ Lift ” —Operation “ Jitters ” —Scalp Care.

Monday, February 5. “ By the way,’ said Henry Moorson, senior, this evening, “ while I'm here 1 might just as well ask you about a little business problem not unconnected with medical knowledge. It’s an idea of my son, who has just come back from a trip round the world. “ 1 sent him round to pick up some new business ideas, but the only ones he has told me about up to now are all concerned with spending money, rather than saving it.” ‘ ‘ Perhaps the idea is to spend so you might ultimately save,” i suggested. “Maybe,” retorted Henry; “ but I can’t forget that it’s my money he’s experimenting with. I sometimes wonder if he'd be quite so keen if it was his own.” “ Well, what’s the problem of the moment, anyway?” I asked. “ Henry, jun.’s, gone all humanitarian and wants me to give evcfyone tea and cukes twice a day. He says they’ll work better and we’ll increase the output. He’s already talked me into issuing cups of tea at 10.45 every morning. He wanted an issue in the afternoon, too, but I told him we closed at 5.30, and anyone who wanted a cup of tea would have plenty of time to have it then.” “ What difference has, the morning issue made?” I asked. “Don’t ask me,” grunted Moorson. “ Ask young Henry'. He’s surrounded by graphs that prove everything he does is right. That’s what I paid his fare round the world for, I suppose. ■ He laughed bitterly. “ The point,” I said, “ is that fatigue is a poison—the commonest poison in use to-day. If you keep a dog awake for about five days he’ll die of fatiguepoisoning.” “ I don’t keep my employees awake for four days, and they aren’t dogs,” said Moorson coldly. “ Fatigue has a starting point. 1 said,and wherever it starts, efficiency lessens. Fatigue is counteracted by rest and refreshments. The idea isn’t new. Industrial psychology experts “have tested it out down the years, and it is claimed that it is most unusual for any firm which has tried the effects of rest-and-frce-rcfreshment ever to dispense with them. Firms of large size have voluntarily offered evidence that output and profit are increased, despite the shorter time worked and the cost of the refreshments.” “ If I give them part of the time I pay them for, why shouldn’t they buy their own tea and biscuits?” demanded Henry. , . “ Now you’re asking me a business question which my training mightn’t entitle me to answer,” I replied. “ Speaking not as an expert, however, [ should say that if a firm stands to benefit from the rest-refreshment periods, it might consider whether it couldn’t afford to pay forthem.” “ It seems you’re on his side, too, grunfed Moorson. “ The world is full or beautiful theories that some fool like me eventually has to pay for.” Tuesday, February 6. “ I wish you could do something to make operations less terrifying,” said Mrs Allan, as I stopped at her bed doing rounds this morning. What have they been doing to you?” I asked. “ It’s just everything,” she said. The night before you’re due to go to the theatre, you don’t sleep too well. It’s all very well for you doctors, who do half a dozen operations a morning, but it’s a big thing in a patient’s life. There are such things as deaths under anresthetics.”' " Don’t think I don’t sympathise with the point of view,” I said, “ but there are far more deaths under motor cars than under anresthetics.” “ Then,” continued Mrs -Allan, “ there’s the. long wait in the morning, hnd the sight of somebody else coming back,, if you don’t happen to be first in. Then you hear them being sick. By the time I arrived in the theatre this day last week I was a nervous wreck. You probably wondered what I was doing grabbing your hand so hard when you came to give me the amesthetic.” “I-hope I grabbed yours hard in return,” I said cheerfully. “It was heavenly!” she said, “especially when I was just going off. I’m not in lovo with you or anything. It’s just the feeling that you’ve got sorae-

i thing real and strong to hang on to as you slip off into the unknown.” Operations could be made much less terrifying. No patient for operation should see any patient who’s just had one; someone should be standing by for an hour or so beforehand, just to keep the unfortunate’s mind off the affair. There might well be someone definitely responsible for the patient’s psychological comfort, as well as phy(l like the story of the religious lady who refused to have an operation unless her minister was with her, and conducted a little service beforehand. She said if she was to bo opened she should open with prayer.) AH these refinements of treatment are matters of hospital space and staff . . . in other words, finance. Wednesday, February 7. “ I wouldn’t let Bernard come along this evening,” said Mrs Wright, speaking of her eldest son. “He had a tooth out this afternoon, and, although the weather is mild, I never think it worth risking a cold in the tooth after an extraction.” “ Or in the place where the tooth came from? ” I asked quizzically. “ Oh, well, you know what I mean, she retorted. “ It’s a bit of a risk, isn’t it? ” 1 explained to her that, actually, there was no more risk in catching cold in the wound alter a tooth extraction than in catching cold in a finger after a splinter extraction. Probably this firmly-established, belief arose from the fact that it is possible to have trouble after an extraction- Far from a cold causing the trouble, however, it is chiefly an infection. Wherefore is it wise to ensure after an extraction that the mouth is washed out frequently, perhaps with a salt-nnd-water wash, till such time as it heals. Thursday, February 8. “ The wife says I’d better come along and see you about this mild dandruff,” announced Oswald Symington this evening. “It’s not that it’s bad, but the wife says she hates to see it ori my coat. Is there any way I can keep it down P ’ I had a look at the head, and came to' the conclusion that it was really a mild case. (People’s ideas of “ nu.d are curiously dissimilar.) “In your case I would suggest the regular use of a soap-spirit shampoo once a week,” I replied 1 . “If that doesn’t do it, we’ll get you an ointment —one that has sulphur and salicylic acid in due proportions.” Latest research suggests that if dandruff gets severe it is necessary to look to diet as Well as local treatment. Broadly speaking, the lines laid down include abundant proteins, restricted carbo-hydrates, limited fluids and salts, and abundant fresh fruit and _ fresh greonstuffs. At the same time, it is suggested that it is necessary to avoid irritants and highly seasoned foods, ns well as fried foods. Iron tonics are also advocated. Friday, February 9. At the moment I have the honour and responsibility of looking after a colleague who has pneumonia. He was my last call to-night, and the night sister met me at the door of his private ward with rather a despairing look. “He’s really impossible,” she said. “He won’t do a thing, he’s told. All you doctors are the same when you’re sick. You’re the world’s worst patients.” “ Let me at him,” I said. “ Glad you came, Peter,” he grunted in the short breaths of the pneumonia patient, as I walked into the room. “ There’s too much damn fussing in this place. And for God’s sake . . . tell ’em I’d rather stay dirty ... in the morning ... and they mustn’t wake me ... to wash me. ...” . Who makes the best and worst patients? A famous _ doctor, just retired, has written his views on the subject, and says that father is the worst patient and mother the best. Mother bears pain better and affliction with greater patience. On the other hand, women are generally more nervous and therefore more open to the influence of a reassuring note. Next to mother, the doctor says that boys from 10 to 15 are about the best patients, and daughtei's of tbe_ same age the most natural and willing to discuss their symptoms intelligently. Names in this Diary are fictitious. —Copyright.