I had a stressful Wednesday. I was called to give evidence in person at an inquest, which was a surprise as my involvement in the patient’s care was peripheral. The court was tiny. We started very late, and had to wait for an hour in an unheated corridor between the door and the toilet.
All I could think about was every more useful thing I could be doing with this time. In my mind, my to do list is a pile of crisp bits of paper, each one with a task typed on it on an old fashioned typewriter, like the in-tray from a movie from the 1950s. This gets higher and higher, and then becomes an unruly mess, threatening to topple over and crush me. I had moved things around to be available all day, but could not move a webinar I was co-presenting in a 1 hour window at lunchtime. I asked to be released for this. After some discussion I was allowed to give my evidence first.
The Coroner’s court is supposed to be a fact-finding mission, rather than an adversarial or litiginous process, but this depends on whether there are lawyers present, and if so, what approach they choose. The questions were fair but challenging. It was a good experience, to have given evidence when I only played a minor part in the case. All healthcare professionals can expect to be involved in legal processes these days. We all find them very stressful.
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