..to be so worried for her as a doctor?..

[Thisisamess]

I split with an ex a few years ago. Very amicable and it’s actually his mum I miss the most from it. I’m since with a new partner and very happy but I always wished I could have stayed in contact with her. She’s probably the most wonderful woman I’ve ever met.

She was a Gynaecologist and was due to retire a few months before we split and I know that she did retire. I thought about her recently and just knew she’d return to service if she did. I checked the GMC register and sure enough, she did.

I do worry about her. I wouldn’t be able to contact her, it would be odd and anyway That isn’t what my post is about.

What happens with these doctors returning to service? What would she be doing? I assume she would be in the A&E dept on the frontline?

She was a type one diabetic and had breast cancer 4 years ago and I find myself unable to stop thinking of her and hoping she’s ok.

I know this is unreasonable and it’s none of my business but I’d be so interested to know what happens with regards to where they’re posted and how someone like her could possibly be safe. She’s so vulnerable in my opinion.

I would try to reach out to her to let her know you're thinking of her. She would appreciate knowing you're concerned, I'm sure.

I think unlikely to be v exposed frontline tbh. Particularly with her history. Plenty of safer roles that need experienced medics, eg boosting 111 where you don’t even have to see patients.

Thank you for the replies. It wouldn’t be appropriate to contact her, it’s been too long.
This is the only drop feeding I’ll do but I must confess to seeing a picture of her on Facebook (her own profile pic). Full scrubs, the works. It doesn’t look like an old pic because she looks different from what I remember but surely she wouldn’t be in ICU wards?! It doesn’t make sense to me why she’d take the risk. See how overinvested I am in this woman from my past?

Apologies for the drip feed, I hate when people do this but it seemed like a real infringement of her privacy that I’m not proud to admit to it.

If she's a gynaecologist most likely she'd be back doing that or at least obstetrics - that's still running full swing and needs extra staff due to sickness/isolation. Would mean being in scrubs too, though tbh as many hospital staff are wearing them as can get their hands on them right now, which is why we're short!

So not risk-free, but less so than being in A&E.

She’s clearly had an positive impact in your life, rather then call her why not friend request her. People have friends on fb they barely know, or haven’t spoken to for years so it wouldn’t be weird

Gynaecologists wear full scrubs daily regardless of covid, we all do in theatre and actually all doctors in my trust are in scrubs currently, so that doesn't mean anything.

She won't be in a&e or at least it's extremely unlikely as she isn't an a&e doctor, she's a gynaecologist and probably most likely to be back in gynae somewhere helping out colleagues who have been ill and filling in the gaps in their rota.

Just because doctors are doctors doesn't mean we can get deployed everywhere if they've been consultants for many years, in fact it's the juniors they can move relatively easily whereas the consultants tend to stick where they're trained or go back to an extremely junior role (not something that's currently happening in our trust)

Regardless, hopefully with her medical conditions, she will be well protected and not frontline as such. Unfortunately I couldn't comment further without knowing individual circumstances.

Thank you - that’s really helpful context!