It's largely about risk management and avoidance of litigation!scotto wrote:no graft, just keep it dressed as per a burn IMO.
it may seem that A+E staff and GP's more often these days seem either afraid to make such calls or ignorant about injury management.
Too often i see young kids with greenstick fractures for example that went from A+E to ortho specialist just to be told "plaster for 4 weeks" and $190 thanks.....
If the general staff make the call and there's a complication (never say never), then the court will likely side with the "suffering" patient and criticise the lack of "expert" referral. Further, if the general staff do make the call, then a portion of the patients will complain about a lack of "proper" treatment. Even the spread of posts in this thread shows it.
Manage the lawyers/courts and the doctors will be more willing to reduce the load on medical resources.
Children and obstetrics are the major litigation bombs that no doctor want to accidentally trigger. Greenstick is all good, as long as it doesn't involve the growth plate or some other obscure complication. Given our medicare cover and litigious system, referral to an orthopod is just logical, unfortunately.