Courtesy towards NHS staff is a must

I had just started as a new medical house officer in an eminent teaching hospital on the south coast of England, having recently completed my surgical job. Like all new doctors, I spent the first few days finding my way around the wards and getting to know the routine. I was booming with enthusiasm and confidence and was somewhat arrogant. The job certainly was not easy. A typical day consisted of an endless ward round, and during on-calls we would be lucky to have a few minutes to ourselves. On a typical post-take ward round we saw more than 20 new admissions, and, with an on-call commitment of one in four, we were always on the go.

I was initially taken aback by the enormity of the workload in …