A Teacher par Excellence
It was in 1986 that this happened. It was my first duty as a 1 st year resident. My senior resident had instructed me, if very serious patients whose prognosis is likely to be poor come, do not admit, refer them off, so that we can keep beds for other patients. He used a word - “scheme off” the patient. Having come from a small rural mission hospital where I never had heard this “scheming off’ and prior to that from a state-run Medical college, which was the final place for all sick people, I never had the previous expertise of scheming off a patient. And adding to this was my poor language skills in Punjabi! As I was wondering what all this meant, a patient with a suspected hemorrhagic cerebrovascular accident was brought in. With very low sensorium and a hemiplegia, the prognosis was poor. The senior resident came and reminded me, try sending the patient off since we do not have many beds for sick patients. The unsaid reason was to reduce the work burden for us, the residents.