Comfort from mother

A full day on Zoom and emails. Three of the Zoom meetings were clinical, and the last one of the day was with my registrar. Pleased to note the increasing comfort he has with discussing his assessments and judgements about treatment. Plus his hunger to know. So far I'm able to satisfy that.

In the middle of the day, the grandly titled Grand Round was presented by a registrar working in Liaison Psychiatry. His topic was the poor physical health of patients with severe mental illness, and the contribution to that from the medications we use. He did a very good summary of the literature on this topic, and also indicated what can be done to reverse it.

On my late afternoon run I heard a lamb bleating, crossed the road so I could look down on a field with sheep and many lambs older than this rather new one, which had been the source of the bleating.

The number of new covid cases in the last 24 hours rose to 33. The Director General of Health (who has been a calm and knowledgeable presenter and then discussant of facts) reassured the country that this was expected as they tested the contacts of all the people who have already tested positive. Accepting that, I think it probable that Auckland will remain at Level 4 lockdown. In our first lockdown 18 months ago, we were at Level 4 for five weeks, followed by another two weeks at only slightly less stringent Level 3. We remain on track to be no worse than that and maybe better. Our staff in the inpatient unit are feeling the strain.