Wang Chao's assessment of Liu Banxia was a bit generous. Although he could get by in any department, he was still a long way from being an expert.
Even so, his performance was already quite outstanding. In fact, many doctors practiced both internal medicine and surgery, though they tended to focus more on their own area of specialization.
Orthopedics was just a branch of surgery; so were cardiothoracic surgery and neurosurgery. Years ago, before specialties were so finely divided, doctors were often rotated between departments.
His work in the orthopedics department that day wasn't much different from his part-time shift in pediatrics the day before. He mostly dealt with minor cases, primarily dislocations. Nowadays, the most common dislocations people suffered from were of the shoulder joint and the small facet joints of the spine.
