Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Observations Ethics Man

When can doctors stay away?

BMJ 2009; 338 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.b165 (Published 16 January 2009) Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b165

Rapid Response:

Duty of Care

D. K. Sokol’s write-up is thought provoking. Like he alluded to in
his article establishing the boundaries of the duty of care is complex. A
few years ago on the labour ward, an obstetric colleague asked me to help
her to secure an intravenous access in a parturient. I obliged her. Two
days later I was met by the same colleague, somewhat agitated, who claimed
that our pregnant lady had been diagnosed with mumps. The occupational
health department (OHD) had requested everyone involved with the patient
to come for blood test. Forty eight hours later, I was summoned to the OHD
to be told my test result. It had come back as equivocal. I was told to go
off work immediately and not to return until 2 weeks. My explanation that
I grew up in a mumps endemic area of the world and may have been immunised
as a child, fell on deaf ears. I was told the hospital could not take the
risk. The year before the whole of the Radiology Dept was shut down for
weeks because one of the staff had mumps. Unfortunately this spread to a
few other staff members and patients. When I raised the issue of my family
(my wife, two daughters and my visiting mother-in-law) I was told to keep
an eye on them and report any symptoms to my GP!

During those 2 weeks, I kept in doors throughout and restricted my contact
with outside world to the minimum. I discouraged anyone visiting our
place. During the period I reflected on some issues: should I have been
confined to an isolation ward? Did I expose my family to some risks? I
wondered if my children ought to go to school and day care centre
respectively. Should my wife go shopping or socialise with her friends?
I returned to work after the forced leave without any symptoms of the
infection. My colleagues who were green with envy for my time-off were
disappointed that I did not spend the time in some exciting place on the
globe. As someone with conscience, would you have gone off?

Competing interests:
None declared

Competing interests: No competing interests

02 February 2009
Ayodele Obideyi
Anaesthetic Specialist Registrar
Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital Colney Lane, Norwich, NR4 7UY.