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multidisciplinary teams which consist not only of doctors but also of
physiotherapists and other allied health professionals.
When patients enter (or are admitted to) hospital, they are usually
seen first by one of the junior doctors on the ward where they will be
provided with treatment and care. The junior doctors clerks them:
takes their medical history and examines them. Some time later, the
registrar also sees the patients, and may order investigations or tests,
for example X-rays or an EGG, make a provisional diagnosis, and
begin treatment. The consultant usually sees the new admissions (peo-
ple who have recently been admitted to the ward) for the first time on
one of the regular ward rounds, when the management of the patients
is discussed with the registrar. Consultants also decide when a patient
is ready to be discharged (sent home). On the ward round, the consult-
ant is accompanied by the team and a nurse, and they visit all the pa-
tients in the care.
Junior doctors now normally work in shifts, which means they
normally work for eight hours every day, for example 7 am to 3 pm,
and then free until 7 am the next day. After a week they change to a
different shift, for example 3 pm to 11 pm or 11 pm to 7 am. The al-
ternative system is to work from 9 am to 5 pm every day and to take
turns to be on call: available to return to the hospital if necessary, from
5 pm to 9 am the next day. Days on call are set out in a rota, or list of
names and times. Doctors on call carry a radio pager, or bleeper, a de-
vice which makes a nose when someone is trying to contact them.