[DOCTOR – mature male baritone, alone] Eight in the morning. A clinic awaits. Twenty-seven patients Entrusting me their fates. The slit lamp is shining, My coffee is brown. I switch on the computer... The system is down. I enter my password. It says it's incorrect. I enter the same password— Accessed. What miracle is this? What joy have I found? [Screen freezes] The system... Is down. [Orchestra enters] Where is my Heidelberg? Where is the OCT? I saw it here on Tuesday— It was definitely me! The patient sits before me. His macula I must see. But Heidelberg remembers Every scan... Except for me. [Music builds] Oh Unity! Unity! Why are we so divided? The information must exist— It's simply been... Misguided. I click upon the document. I click upon the note. I click the little spinning wheel And watch it gently float. I click again. Nothing. I click with greater force. Nothing. I use the ancient NHS cure— Log out. Log in. Of course. [Brief triumphant flourish] It's working! [Pause] No. [Orchestra collapses] Medisight! Oh Medisight! You tempt me with your screen! I know the patient has been here— I've personally seen him! His pressures and his acuities, His drops from yesterday... Are somewhere in your database. Just not... Apparently... Today. [Music becomes increasingly heroic] Where is the consent form? The patient signed it here! I watched him write his signature! The evidence was clear! We scanned it. Saved it. Filed it. Every protocol obeyed! And now the screen informs me: "NO DOCUMENT DISPLAYED." [Huge orchestral chord] NO DOCUMENT DISPLAYED! Is this a warning? Is this a threat? A philosophical statement On the nature of regret? [Quietly] Perhaps the form exists In some dimension yet unknown... Where Heidelberg and Medisight Can finally speak... By phone. [Orchestra swells] I have faced youveeitis! I have faced retinal tares! I've stared through cloudy vitreous For more than thirty years! I've treated inflammation! I've battled failing sight! But nothing quite prepares you For an NHS computer On a Monday morning— [Massive crescendo] When the Wi-Fi isn't right! Unity! Medisight! Heidelberg! Consent! Four systems! Seven passwords! Not one of them content! The clinic's getting later! The waiting room is full! My patient needs an OCT— [Sudden silence] The screen... Has frozen... Again. [Quiet piano] I summon EyeTee Support. A distant voice replies: "Have you tried switching it off and on?" [Long pause] Yes. Yes, I have. [Soft strings] Nine in the morning. We're already running late. The patient smiles politely. He knows his fate. I stare at the computer. It stares back without a sound. Somewhere there's an OCT... [Screen alert] PING! [Hopeful orchestral chord] It's loaded! [DOCTOR] At last! [Pause] Wrong patient.
