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Why I’m not a businessman

In reply to Dirk Vinegar on the Guardian, who says “It is often forgotten that GPs are not salaried NHS clones, but independent business people, most of whom happen to be contracted to the NHS for the main source of their income.” This is important to get right, because the Health Bill will make it […]

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Read your medical records

Essentially, having access to your own medical records is a good thing. The government have made it clear that this is now a priority and intend to work to make online access for patients so that patients can freely access their own notes. However: I think as it stands it’s unlikely to be very helpful. […]

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Dr Foster, association and causation

The headlines today have been driven by publication of the ‘Dr Foster’ (“the UK’s leading provider of comparative information on health and social care services”) annual hospital guide. The Guardian have reported it as have the Telegraph, who  headline  “Experts warn hospitals not to cut staff over weekend death risk.” They have presented their data as […]

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False hope and real living

The Quackometer has had some rather unpleasant emails following his criticism of the Burzynski clinic. The issue is that some people wanted to kindly raise money for a child with cancer to be treated there, when the evidence for the proffered interventions is questionable. Other people have examined the science very well. There is something […]

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Nuffield Health : adverts and evidence

  This is an advert from this week’s BMJ. I am positively fuming about it. Nuffield Health are responsible for some non evidence based practices via their ‘health assessments‘. These currently consist of annual mammograms for women over 40, annual cervical smears, pelvic (ie vaginal) examination, urine analysis, ‘hydration levels’ and a chest xray ‘if […]

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