Page 52 of Dr. Off Limits

Jacob

I’d spent the last twenty minutes sorting out the conference room, ready for twenty-five FY1s to shift from doctors to management consultants.

People filed in and I surreptitiously glanced at Sutton, half hoping she’d catch my eye and half praying she didn’t, because I was sure everyone would see the electricity between us. How did she look even more gorgeous today? She wore her ponytail high and Madonna had been replaced with Prince on her t-shirt. Apparently she liked her eighties pop.

“You’re glowing, Sutton,” Veronica said as they took a seat at the table at the back. “That early night last night did you good.”

I couldn’t help but smirk as I set the flip chart up by the front. Each table had a flip chart as well as markers, Post-it notes, and an array of stationery.

“Please take your seats. Make sure you’re not in the same groups as yesterday.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and typed.

My place for dinner tonight. 3 Holford Road. I’ll be back around eight.

I pressed send and heard Sutton’s phone bleep. I hoped no one connected the two. I scanned the room. Everyone was on their phones. No one was paying attention to Sutton and me.

As people took their seats, Sutton typed on her phone.

Your place? Isn’t that too risky? Don’t people know where you live?

It wasn’t like anyone could see through my windows. My place was set back from the road and gated.

It will be fine. Trust me. Come at eight. And then again at eight thirty and nine. And ten...

I pressed send, grinned at the thought of the blush my message would elicit, and then turned off my phone. I needed to focus. I had plenty of distraction already today just having Sutton in the room.

I deliberately didn’t watch Sutton open my message. Instead, I brought the room to attention.

“As you know, we surveyed you about the one thing you would change at the Royal Free if you had a magic wand.” If I was honest, the results had been a little disappointing. Most people talked about hours or staffing levels or pay levels. Nothing about any of that could be sorted by us today in this room.

“Out of the issues raised, I’ve identified three I thought we could work in our groups to try and come up with some kind of fix for. It might not be a complete fix. Maybe it would just ease the problem, but let’s put our heads together and see what we can come up with.”

The way I saw it, even if we didn’t manage to come up with any solutions, just the idea that the new doctors saw the problems in the hospital as part of their responsibility would provide a useful mindset shift. It was all too easy to blame those in management or lack of funding—and they were understandable targets—but they didn’t help morale. If problems at the hospital were perceived as issues that we all could solve, then it may have several effects. It could stop the “us vs them” culture that existed between management and the medical staff, and it might propel doctors into looking at how they could work more effectively and efficiently in every area. It put the responsibility for working practices back in the doctors’ hands.

“The three areas that you came up with are one, readmissions. We all know readmissions are mainly preventable and are a drain on money and time. Second, test results, in particular blood test results taking so long to come back. Third, the constant issue of freeing up beds quickly to admit new patients.”

I glanced everywhere around the room but at Sutton. I couldn’t risk losing my train of thought.

“The benefit of you all coming in here is that you see things with a fresh perspective. You’re not burdened with the history of what has been tried and failed before. Nothing is off the table. I want you to pick one of the three issues I just described. In your groups, spend three quarters of an hour thinking up potential solutions—I don’t want anyone censoring their thoughts, crossing things out because they might not work. Just put everything down. Use the materials on your tables. When time is up, one person from each table should be ready to report back to the entire group.”

Murmurs broke out as the tables discussed which issue they wanted to deal with.

“Remember,” I said, over the simmer of voices, “don’t focus on why something can’t work, or how something will work. We’re not focusing on implementation.”

The room set to work and I left them to it. I’d check my emails and messages before I made the rounds.

I glanced up from my phone about ten minutes later. Sutton was at her table’s flip chart. They’d chosen the issue of freeing up beds. She looked beautiful. Her arse in her jeans looked perfectly cuppable, and the beauty spot on her right cheek perfectly kissable.

I went around the groups, checking they didn’t need any input from me. A couple of times I needed to stop people dismissing ideas and encourage them to throw as much up on the flip chart as possible. Doctors could be alarmingly narrow-minded and cynical. This was an exercise in being neither.

“Okay,” I bellowed at the room. “Your time is up. Please nominate a speaker from your group and get ready to read out your ideas. After this we’re going to vote for which problem we all want to focus on and we’re going to work through the ideas to see what could work and what wouldn’t.”

Many of the answers had to do with fundraising or employing more staff. It was a little demotivating. I really wanted something special to come out of this offsite. I wanted to prove that taking doctors out of their normal environment could really add value in the long run, and show how the training and development of doctors wasn’t always about their clinical skill and medical knowledge. That had been true while my mother and father practiced, but it was time to move on. Most of the answers weren’t the most creative but every now and then, an idea was read out that might just have legs.

We worked through each table’s suggestions. Sutton’s group was last. Luckily for me, she hadn’t been nominated as spokesperson, so I could try and focus on Veronica, who was speaking. She stood and went through the list of things to help the issue of freeing up beds.

“And then there’s the reverse-triage idea that Sutton had, and that’s it,” she finished off. Triage? That was vague, but it sounded interesting. Or was I only interested because it was Sutton’s brainchild? I really wanted to ask for more detail, but would it look odd, like I was singling her out?

Before I could help myself, the words were out of my mouth. “Reverse-triage?”

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