For reasons that I need not trouble you with I recently spent an evening in the A & E Department of a large hospital. As usual, I was deeply impressed with the general professionalism and friendliness of the medical staff as the steady stream of the sick and injured (or drunk or drugged) came through the door. One thing that struck me was the number of police officers present. They certainly outnumbered the doctors, and at times outnumbered the nurses too. It cannot be easy to take a proper statement from an obviously distressed woman while the business of the hospital ebbs and flows around you. I was told that their presence is particularly welcome at the weekend when "Wander forth the sons of Belial, flown with insolence and wine" as Milton put it.
This post appears as a narrow column of text. Please can you correct it?
ReplyDeleteI would if I knew how to!
DeleteYou have it set as a quote, you can see the "blockquote" tags in your code, removing them will fix it.
DeleteThere are two spurious "blockquote" elements surrounding the full text which are forcing indentation. I don't know your blogging software, but somehow you caused it to "think" that you are quoting within a quote within a quote. Here is the offending HTML (slightly edited to "blackquote" and with <> changed to + permit it to be posted by the very picky comment software which doth protect thine blog honor):
Delete+blackquote class="tr_bq"+
+blackquote class="tr_bq"+
For reasons that I need not trouble you with [...] as Milton put it. +/blackquote+
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The blockquote after Milton seems intentional -- probably for Milton's quote. The other two "just happened". Probably you had more text selected than you thought at the time.
The usual way that these things are created is, with text selected, some kind of button with a right-facing arrow is clicked, intentionally or not. To get rid of it, select that block of text and find the left-facing arrow that will negate the blockquotes by the reverse operation.
Or not, since I doesn't really bother me at all.
I poked around in the edit function and it looks all right now. Thanks for the suggestions, even the ones that I don't understand. Unfortunately my computer-savvy granddaughters live 100 miles away.
DeleteA minor correction. You mean the Teams computer-savvy descendants live far away.
DeleteStandard practice for a junior hospital doctor in Casualty: organize tea for the cop(s). The longer you keep 'em within earshot the better off you all are, and the cops are not usually that impatient to leave for whatever it is they might next be deployed to. Especially in the middle of a cold winter's night.
ReplyDeleteIt always intrigues me why so many people who aren't doctors try to pass themselves off as such. Whether they do so by inference of by spouting semi-medical guff matters little; it still makes them seem rather pathetic. And it is a criminal offence to boot.
DeleteNot necessarily, e.g., if he boots a football.
DeleteVery good! Though I am not necessarily completely convinced. Dodgy game, football.
Delete...or his computer.
DeleteAt one time anyone kicking off in an A&E would be dealt with firmly : not these days. Assaulting the police, bus, taxi drivers, doctors and nurses all deserve the severest punishment and maybe if they were dealt with in such away they would stop causing the bother.
ReplyDeletePut with that the fair number of people who are operating totally pissed-up most of the time, topping up Fridays and Saturdays it is no wonder there is a problem.
Whilst I'm sure the cops do hang about a bit longer than they ought, Id rather they did and at least put a little restraint on the foul-mouthed, pissed up yobs who plague the late nights of A&E
The last time I was in A&E (late on a Friday night) there was in the waiting room - two people with minor injures from a car crash (I was one), 1 sick baby, 1 guy with a cut up arm and at least 6 people who were drugged up and/or drunk including a large man who was arguing with himself loudly. Not surprising the staff want some police on site.
ReplyDeleteThis is why policemen usually marry nurses!!
ReplyDeleteJaded
No. It was the black stockings in my day.
DeleteI know many nurses, but only one who was married to a policeman. It didn't last.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I was in A&E (early one morning), the police actually outnumbered the patients, most of whom had been escorted in by two members of the force!
ReplyDeleteMy most recent visit to A&E was for a sprained knee. There were no cops there; about 10 people were waiting - I waited 50 minutes in all; people with babies were seen immediately. Ambulances were continually arriving at the back door.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was seen I only saw a nurse, never a doctor. The nurse was so busy she kept running out of the room and back in again ("take your shoes and socks off"/leaves the room/comes back/"Get on the bed"/leaves the room/comes back/"move your toes"/leave the room/comes back/gives me a leaflet about sprains/etc.)
Eventually she left the room for so long I assumed the consultation was over and left. I never saw any other member of the medical staff; never said goodbye or any sort of formal ending to the visit, technically I may still be there!