title: What does a house-surgeon on call for the wards do?
abstract: This survey shows that the number and type of out-of-hours calls arising from general surgical inpatients in a service of 181 beds can be satisfactorily handled by an on-call house-surgeon, covering all the firms. The house-surgeon must have readily available support from the registrar on duty for the few difficult problems, and the firms must all do service ward-rounds on Saturdays and Sundays. This method of staffing at night and at weekends is economical but the work involved in the weekend rounds should be recognised.
mesh_terms: D004739:England; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D014937:Work