A ship too far

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7526.1182-b

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Sajid Mahmud (babasajid@yahoo.co.uk), specialist registrar

Wrexham Maelor Hospital, Wrexham

We saw the look of despair in his eyes as his trolley was wheeled out of the anaesthetic room. After a long wait, the news had come from the intensive care unit that his operation had to be postponed because, as often happens, no bed was available. Unfortunately, the last bed had been claimed for a patient who had taken an overdose. We trainees, too, had our reasons to be disappointed at the postponement, since this was to be the first laparoscopic radical gastrectomy for distal gastric malignancy performed in our …