Typical "Day" At the Night Emergency Clinic

The Candoni RHU opens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., the Public Health staff would report to work. After 5 p.m., the Night Emergency Clinic staff will take charge. The NEC is supposed to cater to emergency cases however, there are times that some patients would even visit the NEC to see consultation, even have their BP's checked. Mostly, the NEC would serve only emergency cases such as: severe abdominal pains, trauma cases, loss of consciousness, difficulty breathing, etc.

A typical "day" at the NEC would start with me asking one of the staff, usually my night utility staff, to buy me my dinner (which is usually inasal na manok and 1 cup of rice). If there are no patients, then I would join the night staff during dinner while watching the news. Sometimes, patients would start coming in at around 6:30 p.m.: skin abrasions, foreign body, etc.

A few nights ago, I had to cater to a patient who had a metal rod sticking out the sole of his foot. He accidentally stepped on the metal rod and it got stuck. He didn't want to pull it out because he was told the metal rod had an arrowhead (sarawit). His father brought him to the Main health center. I was almost instinctively ready to refer them to the district hospital because I was not sure how deep the penetration was. But the father told us that they were very poor and they could not afford to be referred. So, I decided to incise on his sole and slowly pulled out the rod. It wasn't that deep but not that shallow either.

After prescribing his antibiotics and tetanus shots, the father and son left the NEC. Before they left, the father dropped 20 pesos in the donation box.

That same night, there were 3 boys who went to the NEC to have their friend's foot examined. It got pinned down by the motorcycle they were riding and he thought he had a huge laceration because it was bloody. After washing his foot, it was only abrasions.

After dinner, we would usually watch May Bukas Pa, and then I would head to my quarters where I would sleep or take phone calls from home. That night, the staff woke me up to refer a patient who was drunk and got electrocuted. She only got minor burns on her left hand but she was very disoriented. I had to admit her at the Observation Ward, after inserting some IVF. The following morning, the patient was already up and about, feeling better already. She could not accurately recall what happened the night before. She was discharged immediately.

While I was attending to her that night, some of my staff where inside the Delivery Room attending to a pregnant patient in labor. My midwife-in-charge of DR would usually attend to the delivery.

Just before I could go back to bed, there was another patient referred to me due to epigastric pain and vomiting. Abdomen was soft and the patient was not dehydrated so I prescribed some antacids and advised the patient to follow up at the OPD the next morning.

The Night Emergency Clinic ends at 6 a.m., where the morning shift staff reports to work and prepares for their Public Health work.