Understand the system in your hospital

Different hospitals or even different departments have different systems.
Some departments/ Unit, you need to refer to specialist oncall (not because they don’t have MO but maybe because it’s a subspecialised case). Usually our MOs can help to do this kind of referrals.

Some departments have MO oncall for the whole day from AM today till AM next day

• the same MO will accept referrals during and after office hours

Some departments have MO peri (peripheral) – i.e. they will see all the referral cases from their peripheral wards.

Sometimes, operator has only MO oncall number. Then how to find the MO who previously reviewed your patient? Ask your friends in the hospital/department HO chat groups anyone has number of that MO.

In some departments, MO oncall will see all new and old cases referred to that department. So you can call operator to ask who is the MO referral from that department on that day

In some departments, the same MO in charge will only see the patients that they are in charge / the patients initially referred to their teams.
For example, patient A and patient B were both previously referred to department X, but reviewed by different teams in the same department. So you would need to call back MOs from different teams to review patient A and patient B.

From time to time, you will understand about this system.
So that your referral can go through smoothly. This saves your time, just need to refer to the correct MO referral to see your case.

Introduction

Clerking patient is a routine job for any doctor. Inpatient clerking is not simply copying the entries from ED or OPD notes. Once the patients are in the ward we should ask further detailed history and do further physical examination or laboratory tests to rule out or rule in other diagnosis.

Miscellaneous

For certain comorbidities, patients should have a record book with them. Remember to have a look if necessary:

• Patients on regular warfarin under INR clinic / MTAC follow-up would have an INR book, where the usual INR range and adjustment of warfarin doses are recorded
• Patients with diabetes mellitus would have a diabetes mellitus follow-up book, where certain information such as HbA1c, weight, medication list are recorded
• Patients with ESRF on CAPD would have a CAPD record book, where you can get information regarding the input and output of the peritoneal dialysis fluid
• Patients with TB would have a TB treatment book which gives you information regarding weight, anti-TB treatment regime, medication administration record, and follow-up date

Perhaps there are many other record books with patients. Always ask from patients regarding these books, so you can have rough idea how patient and the control of those chronic illnesses.