A hypotensive, possibly septic patient

You click off your next patient on the emergency department computer system, musing that the time taken to provide the Department of Health its data ‘needs’ requires some 5 minutes per patient of doctor time (not counting nursing or clerical data). This adds up to one doctor shift per day while adding very little to patient care.

Moving on to read the letter from the fellow GP who sent the patient in, you are impressed with its pertinence and appropriate detail. Obviously, the GP is very concerned about this patient.