Michael Edmonds

Senior doctor warns WA emergency departments run like 'disaster situation' A senior WA emergency department doctor describes his workplace as running in a "disaster situation", struggling within a health system which has an "unhealthy fixation" on ambulance ramping.

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Tough winter in WA, not helped by poor IT and infrastructure

4/5 But in reality, everybody is capable of becoming an exceptional leader; they just have to be willing, committed and consistent. Showing up when it’s inconvenient and leading when it’s hard, that’s what turns an ordinary person with ordinary skills into an extraordinary leader.

Cover art for The Bends by Radiohead

I tried dropping Radiohead when talking about hyperbaric medicine. Blank stares.

Black, or -1000 Hounsfield?

Compassion as our core in the ED — YourED This isn’t a piece about being nice. It’s about choice, about what it means to care when it is hard to care. Not when things are calm, but when someone’s screaming, the phone won’t stop, and another t...

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞?

Not a soft extra — the centre.

I wrote a short piece for 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘌𝘋 on why compassion should be the anchor of how we design, lead, and care in the ED.

Read it here:
👉 www.youred.org.au/read/compass...

Is there still room for compassion in emergency care? This blog post explores the important issue of compassion in emergency care. With all the pressures we currently face, it can be extremely hard to remain compassionate. I explore common barriers to co...

Is there still room for compassion in emergency care?
I answered this question in a @stemlyns.bsky.social blog, over a decade after I first led research on this topic, which should always be at the heart of emergency care…

www.stemlynsblog.org/is-there-sti...

The emergency department needs to not be the end of every troubleshooting flowchart.

We can do a lot. But there’s a lot we can’t do. Acute care is the worst place for chronic problems.

General practitioner understanding of abbreviations used in hospital discharge letters Patient care is compromised by GPs not understanding abbreviations used in hospital discharge letters

And not just for patients/families. This study demonstrated how ED/Hospital acronyms may not be accurately understood by community doctors
www.mja.com.au/journal/2015...

Easter is nearly all ova.

We are learning the wrong lessons from lockdown And unless we learn the right ones, we risk making the same mistakes in a new pandemic

Lockdowns are terrible. So are deadly pandemics. @chrischirp.bsky.social tells it straight.

christinapagel.substack.com/p/we-are-lea...

Elbows up, Canada.

For you, @maffygirl.medsky.social

Trick for removing ear foreign bodies in emergency.

Flood the ear with lignocaine/adrenaline.

Reduces swelling, bleeding and pain. Lubricates the ear. Then get a hook or wax curette.

#ENTsecrets #ENTsurgery #surgery

I'm supposed to look after the sickest people but it's getting harder to find them in the throng of patients whose healthcare needs are not being met by a system where ED has become the substitute, not the safety net.

The attenders are not inappropriate, their healthcare provision is.

2/3

*screams in Emergency Medicine

My letter in today's Ottawa Citizen:

Hospital crowding is getting worse

The Doug Ford government has had close to two terms in office to address hospital crowding and it’s hard to find any evidence of improvement. In my view from the ground, it is much worse.

An EPiC mental model. St Emlyn's Coordinating, consulting and managing an entire acute clinical service in real-time is fairly unique to emergency medicine. Are you EPIC?

Coordinating, consulting and managing an entire acute clinical service in real-time is fairly unique to EM.
Central to this is the emergency physician in charge (EPiC) role.
Following a busy 🌃 I'm resharing my mental model for the EPiC role.

🏥🚑🚑 🚑...
#EMedsky
www.stemlynsblog.org/an-epic-ment...

"If you became an ER doc because you loved thank you's, boy did you fuck up. Because your best work does not know who you are." - Dr. Billy Mallon

Leaving out a glass of "milk" for Father Christmas?

2024 Aardvent is here to download
It's a gift from us, all we ask is that you:
-enjoy it
-share the link with friends and get them to do it too
-don't sell it, alter it or use any of the images for anything else.
-download and use at your own risk
M&K xx
www.worldofmoose.com/pages/2024-a...

Skytorial: can you crack the case?

A middle-aged healthy patient undergoes colonoscopy under propofol sedation.

Colonoscopy is unremarkable.

Post-procedure, the patient doesn't wake up and has rhythmic movements involving the legs as shown here.

Labs are normal.

What might be going on?

Day 1 #ACEM24 underway soon!

Word of the day is ‘librocubicularist’: one who loves nothing better than reading in bed.

(Not easy to say, but I’m glad to know it exists).

I’ve taken a vowel of slence.

There are 58 #EMedSky folks in here so far - if I’ve missed you, let me know and I’ll add you.
Please be kind and patient, it’s gotten quite busy here recently!

This issue isn’t low acuity patients presenting to ED, it’s bed block due to increasing multi/morbidity and complex illness

But it’s just not sexy to make funding announcements about primary care and OPD access and disability supports