First is the NHS (National Health Service), which in keeping with the majority of public services is under-funded (or is that "over-performing") and poorly administrated (a direct consequence of the former problem). A major component of this poor administration is 2nd rate information technology. For anyone working in a major private-sector corporation (not forgetting that the NHS is the largest company in Europe) this really has to be seen to be believed ! No wonder junior doctors (& nurses) spend 25% of their working time looking for information. Most of us would rather spend that time with patients !
Second is the RCP (Royal College of Physicians), a notable UK charity which junior hospital physicians make sizeable donations to in the form of examination fees ! This would not be so bad if the exams were reasonable and educationally-sound. However, this is not the case (in particular for MRCP Part I) and the system is long overdue for improvement (which even the surgeons have managed to do !)
I survive as a junior hospital
physician with considerable assistance from a personal organiser called
a "PalmPilot" or more recently a "Palm" organiser - these pages explain
how ...
Now the above image may make this
look like a toy ... and indeed there are many games available for it.
However, this 8 x 12 x 1.5cm device has a touch-sensitive screen, hand-writing
recognition, backlight, infra-red capabilities, easy PC synchronisation,
efficient battery use, several inbuilt applications, plenty of free memory
and enormous third party support - which make it the market-leader in its
field.