(no subject)

Shoot me, shoot me now.

The computer has eaten two of the letters I typed last week. I did not print them out because there was no point, as I was awaiting haematology results that never came. There was apparently no haematology done last week, notwithstanding the fact that Dr Slevin said he put the patients in for blood tests. He's going to be fucking livid.

This place is insane. The computers eat things. The post room eats things. The haematology department is apparently staffed with vampires who keep falling off the wagon. But at least I spoke to someone at the other hospital with a clue so I might at least get the upper GI endoscopy report I asked for last week sometime in the next 24 hours, which will keep the patient's daughter from ripping my head off. And somehow the clinic pullers or runners or whoever the hell has the things these days have lost a brand spanking new set of notes that I gave them Friday. Now Dr Slater is under the impression that I didn't even register the patient, but I can prove that I did because I have the patient's hospital number. You can't have a hospital number for a patient unless you've made up a set of notes for them. So someone lost my set of notes and I can't make up a new one because the patient already has one; it's just out in the ether somewhere.

I didn't see Chantal last week but she came in this week and grinned at me a lot in a way that scared me until she explained that the grin's because she's eminently glad I'm back. Apparently the temp who took over for me spent most of her time giving Chantal this blank, cow-on-hash-brownie stare everytime she asked for anything. And somehow, Dr Slater thinks this temp was okay. Of course, some incompetence isn't seen until it's either a) too late or b) in the process of being sorted out by someone with a goddamn clue.

Is murder always a crime?

Another reason why the temp must die:

I just got a phone call from radiology. Apparently they were about to scan a patient I'd never heard of who'd had a previous scan done at a different hospital, where Dr Slater also has a secretary. Dr Slater specified in her requst for the scan that the results be compared with the previous scan -- "films with secretary". This scan was requested on 27th September, which probably means the request was actually sent out the week before -- i.e. when the temp was in. No one told me that there were scans that needed to be brought through from the other hospital. I can only surmise that it was either given to her Homerton secretary to do or left with the temp. Neither of them did it. Watch me get into shit.

And then there's the registrar. I got another phone call from another family-member-of-patient saying "Where's my relative's appointment for chemo?" I contact the ward; no record of it. (The request, by the way, was made two weeks ago, while the temp was in charge.) So I ring the registrar. He yet again asked me to do the booking. I told him that Dr Slater said I wasn't supposed to and was supposed to leave it to him. He's received notice about this already. But instead of accepting it gracefully, he tries guilt: "Oh, I'm happy to do it myself, really, but I'm with a patient right now and if you weren't tied up..."

My response? "Actually, I'm in the middle of typing up clinic letters." Which I was. (Technically still am, but I need a break and about to go deliver appointment letters to the post room, who'll probably eat them.) I'm not taking that shit; I am busy, and Dr Slater told me not to anyway! Sheesh. The nerve.

There will be foom. Or maybe power tools, strike-anywhere matches and rock salt.

Thought Bubbles

Things I'm Thinking About

• I'm going to do the NoMo again this year, and maybe I'll get the requisite number of pages done this time. I think I have my premise but it has to stew a little more. Maybe I'll move away from fantasy-horror this time and move into something a little more in tune with my apparent comedic talents. Straight fiction -- what a concept.
  
• The problem is finding the time. November sees the jostle where the Exalted/Mage alternating weekends give way to 7th Sea/Mage alternating weekends -- that's going to be fun. I mean, somebody's going to have to skip a weekend or double up at least once so that we get cholten99's Immortal game in Colchester falling on a Mage weekend instead of a weekend that was formerly given to Exalted. If this doesn't make sense to you, don't worry about it -- I'm not sure I get it either.
  
• I need to reload at least one of the Restart PC pages. Mark e-mailed (the Apocalypse is nigh) with a rewrite of his character background (the Apocalypse is right nigh) and so I'm going to have to do something about that this week.
  
• If I have another insomnia attack tonight, I am going to do murder. And the headache still isn't going away. It might have to be the generic PM stuff again. I'm trying not to use it much because I won't see more of it until I next go back to the US and it's a long way to fly. Also because I don't really want to rely on it. Gah.
  
• Do I want caffeine? If I do, I've got an hour to go to the shops.
  
• How can e-mail be slow?