‘I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen so far. It’s all exceptionally clean and efficient-looking.’
Finally, they arrived at the A and E department. There were a couple of resuscitation rooms, several treatment bays and an area where doctors could go to type up their notes or access computers.
‘I love the way this small area has been set apart for the younger patients,’ Saskia commented. ‘That mural must help to take their minds off their troubles, for a start.’
Janine smiled. ‘It’s great, isn’t it? Dr Beckett commissioned it from a relative of one of his patients. The children love trying to find the chicks hiding in the farmyard. And, of course, the ceiling mural helps distract them when they have to lie down.’
‘Yes, I imagine it does.’ It had been made to look like a vivid blue sky, with cotton-wool clouds, a mixed assembly of birds and colourful box kites to keep the children amused.
If only she could be so easily distracted. She sighed inwardly, thinking about the members of the interview panel who were most likely deciding her fate at that very moment. Her stomach gave an uncomfortable lurch.
A nurse came over to them as they walked towards the nurses’ station. ‘Janine, I’ve been paging Dr Beckett—do you know if he’s in the hospital today? I haven’t seen him all morning and we’ve had a patient come in with an injury to his wrist. We need him to come and take a look at it.’
‘He’s definitely here. He’s been doing interviews since first thing, but they should be finished by now. I expect he’ll be along in a minute or two.’
‘Okay, thanks.’
Janine glanced at Saskia. ‘You might want to be in on this—see how we do things here.’
‘Are you sure?’ Saskia frowned. ‘I don’t want to get in the way.’
Janine shook her head. ‘I’m sure it won’t be a problem. We’re all very friendly and informal around here.’
‘You have a patient for me?’ Dr Beckett strode into the A and E unit, his manner brisk and ready for action. Saskia stiffened. Had the interview panel finished their discussion and come to a conclusion?
‘He’s in here,’ the triage nurse told him, pointing out one of the treatment rooms. ‘We’ve done X-rays and given him painkillers.’ She handed him the patient’s file.
‘Thanks.’ He glanced at the notes in the file, and then went over to the computer and studied the films. Frowning, he said, ‘I’ll need someone to assist. Who’s free?’
The nurse shook her head. ‘No one right now. I’m needed in several places at once, and as for the rest—we’re busy with an influx of patients just now. There was a minor explosion at a building site and we’ve had a number of casualties...something to do with a propane gas cylinder. Nothing dreadfully serious regarding casualties, thankfully, but some quite nasty burns.’
He inclined his head in acknowledgement. ‘Okay, I suppose I’ll just have to wait until you can spare someone.’
Saskia said quickly, ‘I could help, if you want.’
He glanced at her. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Of course. If there’s anything at all I can do...’ She frowned. ‘I understand this man has a broken wrist. Was that something to do with the explosion?’
He shook his head. ‘Totally different, apparently. He came off his motorcycle while taking a bend too sharply.’
‘Oh, dear.’
They went into the treatment room, where they found a young man in his early twenties nursing a badly deformed wrist.
‘Well, Mason,’ Tyler said, pulling up a chair and carefully examining the man’s injury, ‘I could have told you even without looking at the X-rays that you’ve broken your wrist.’ He glanced at Saskia. ‘Have you seen this kind of fracture before?’
She nodded. ‘It’s a Smith’s fracture,’ she murmured, ‘and that’s a typical garden-spade deformity.’ She looked at Mason. ‘I expect you fell awkwardly off your bike and landed on the back of your hand. I suppose you can count yourself lucky you don’t have any other injuries—apart from cuts and grazes, that is.’
The young man gave her a rueful smile. ‘I guess I can. Though this feels bad enough.’
‘I’m sure it does.’
‘We’ll get you sorted out in no time,’ Tyler said. ‘I’ll give you a local anaesthetic and a sedative, and then we’ll realign the bones for you and get you fixed up with a splint.’ He looked at Saskia. ‘I’ll need you to hold his elbow steady while I reduce the fracture—are you okay with that?’
‘Yes, of course.’
A few minutes later, when their patient’s wrist had been fully anaesthetised, they worked together to manipulate the bones back into position. ‘Okay,’ Tyler said, checking the shape of the wrist and testing the pulses there. ‘That seems to have done the trick. We’ll get that splinted up and then do further X-rays to make sure everything’s as it should be.’
Mason was clearly relieved some time later when the procedure was finished and had been pronounced a success.
‘Okay, we’ll see you back here in a couple of days to check how things are going,’ Tyler told him. ‘And in the meantime I’ll write up a prescription for some painkillers for you to take home with you.’
‘Thanks.’
At Tyler’s signal, a nurse came to take Mason along to the nurses’ station so that she could go through the discharge process with him and give him his medication.
Tyler turned to Saskia. ‘Thanks for your help with that. I’m sure he was relieved to get it over and done with.’ His glance moved over her fleetingly. ‘You’ve been very patient. You must be anxious to know the result of your interview?’
She nodded. ‘Has it been decided?’
He shook his head. ‘Not yet. I gave the others my input before I left the meeting, so I expect they’ll let us know shortly. Shall we go along to my office while we wait? I expect you could do with a cup of coffee.’
‘That would be good, thanks,’ she said, although all she really wanted to do now was get out of there and start working out what she was going to do for the best. She didn’t hold out much hope for a successful outcome.
His office was everything she might have expected. It was a beautifully turned out room with satisfying neutral colours in soft greys and blues and an overall sense of calm. A good deal of light came in through deep, wide windows that looked out onto a paved terrace beyond, where stone planters were filled with bright chrysanthemums, adding a splash of colour.
The furniture was made of pale golden beechwood. A desk with a pigeonholed upstand stood to one side of the room, and against another wall neat cupboards were interspersed with glass-fronted bookcases. There were even a couple of plants, billowy ferns that provided a pleasing touch of green.
‘Please, sit down,’ he said, waving
