The Timing – Part 1

Dr. Dev (Fictional name) newly joined a private hospital as consultant surgeon. Dr. Anurag Sharma (Fictional name), a famous and busy Urologist was also a consultant in the same hospital. (Urologist is a specialized surgeon dealing with surgical problems of kidneys, urinary bladder, etc.)

Dr. Dev admitted a patient of appendicitis in the hospital for operation. He planned for the operation of removing the diseased appendix in the noon as the Operation Theater (OT) was occupied by Neuro-Surgeon in the morning. After finishing his OPD at another clinic at around 12.30 pm, he phoned the OT staff to know whether the OT was now free for his case.

The OT nurse informed him that the neuro-surgery operation has just finished and they were in fact just going to phone him regarding when he wanted to take his case.

Seeing, that it was just 12.30 pm, Dr. Dev thought it is better to hurry and do the operation now and have relaxed lunch afterwards.

To save time, Dr. Dev, keeping in mind the average time taken by him to drive from the clinic to the hospital, instructed the staff nurse to shift the patient from the ward to the OT and ask the anesthetist to start the pre-operative preparations, saying that he will reach the hospital within 5 to 10 minutes.

When Dr. Dev reached the hospital around 6 to 7 minutes later, he changed and entered the OT, expecting to find the patient lying on the OT table.

To his amazement he found the OT empty, the anesthetist and the OT staff in the side room enjoying hot cups of coffee in a relaxed mood while the patient was still in the ward.

Dr. Dev demanded the explanation why his instructions were not carried out. The OT staff and the anesthetist explained, “When Dr. Anurag Sharma (the Urologist) phones and says I am coming in 5 minutes, he takes at least half hour to reach the OT.” “When he says I am coming in 10 minutes, he never reaches the OT before an hour.”

“So when you said I will reach the hospital in 5 to 10 minutes, we assumed that you will come to hospital only after half an hour to an hour later. So, we were just passing time, and did not take your instructions literally.” “But, now that we know that you mean 10 minutes when you say 10 minutes, we will respond accordingly in future.”

Many of us do not tell the exact time when asking others to wait for us. It may be due to embarrassment to ask another person to wait for say a hour. A 10 minutes wait may sound reasonable but if you do not reach within 10 minutes then soon people will stop taking you seriously.

Conversely, when joining or working at a new place it may be better to know what a colleague or co-worker may actually mean when he says 5 to 10 minutes.

 (Based on true incident)
— ND
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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

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