Free Second Opinion by Claire Rayner Page B

inside (past the remnants of the anti-NHS Trust picket line, which had hung about the entrance ever since April when the new system had started but which was blessedly undermanned during the evenings) that there had really been only one casualty; the other men involved had been taken to the police station and no doubt would be seen by a police surgeon there if necessary. Dr Choopani had been the most damaged, and he was now sitting bolt upright on a couch in one of the cubicles with the junior casualty officer bending over his wrist.
    ‘Make sure you check the palmar radio-carpal ligament as well as the nerve supply, the branch of the median nerve to the thenar muscles passes just under there,’ he was saying. ‘I want a senior man doing this job. I’m not going to be meddled with by some junior or other. Oh!’ He looked up as George came in through the curtains. ‘Are you the senior consultant tonight? I’d rather be seen by one of the men, if you please.’
    George’s brows snapped together. ‘I am not the consultant here,’ she said as smoothly as her anger would let her. ‘I’m Old East’s consultant pathologist It was I who dealt withyou at the restaurant when you were injured. I came back to see how you are. I needn’t have worried, of course. You’re in excellent hands, none better.’
    The houseman who had been gingerly exploring the wound on Dr Choopani’s wrist looked at her gratefully and she smiled at him as he tried to look like the sort of surgeon she’d described, rather than the uneasy young one he actually was. ‘Good evening Dr Barnabas,’ he said.
    George threw a glance at his name badge, grateful for the new rule that said all hospital staff must wear one. She hadn’t the remotest idea who he was, of course; remembering the names of all the junior medical staff was an impossibility. ‘Good evening, Adam,’ she said in a voice that made it clear she’d known him for all his professional life, and for some time before that, too, and then looked at Dr Choopani. ‘As I say, Dr Parotsky here is one of our most accomplished surgeons. However, since you’re so worried, I’m sure he’ll agree to a second opinion, though for my part I’d as soon have Adam than anyone, especially as he’s here, and the consultant lives some miles away and will have to be called in. It shouldn’t take more than an hour or two, though. Do arrange it, Adam.’ She looked at the boy who grinned happily. ‘I’ll keep Dr Choopani company while you dig out Maggy Hill-Sykes.’
    ‘Who?’ Dr Choopani said sharply.
    ‘Maggy Hill-Sykes, Dr Choopani,’ George said silkily. ‘Our consultant on Accident and Emergency. I thought you knew all of us by name here! As a local family doctor …’
    He glowered at her and then looked at Adam Parotsky. ‘Can you manage to repair this?’
    Adam looked swiftly at George, who laughed easily. ‘My dear Dr Choopani, he does a dozen of these a day, don’t you, Adam?’
    ‘Er — yes,’ Adam said.
    ‘Then get on with it,’ Dr Choopani snapped. ‘I haven’t all night to sit here, waiting for some woman to — waiting forthe consultant to turn out. And make sure someone organizes a skull film.’ He touched his left eye tenderly. ‘I might have a fracture of the orbit here.’
    George leaned over and gently palpated the bony rim of the eye socket. She shook her head. ‘I doubt it, but if you want a skull X-ray, I’m sure Adam’ll fix it Won’t you, Adam?’
    The boy beamed with sudden euphoria. ‘I’ve already ordered it, of course,’ he said. ‘Routine after a history like this.’
    ‘You see?’ George said, nodding at the man on the couch. ‘I told you you were in excellent hands.’
    ‘All right, all right,’ Choopani snapped. ‘Let’s just get on with it.’
    Adam disappeared around the curtains to find a nurse to assist him and to get his equipment as George sat down on the end of the couch. ‘A nasty business,’ she said.
    Choopani glared at her