New series and thanks to Kings Cross Pond !   great review article – co authored by Michael Tipton who is on the programme discussing cold water swimming http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4052348/ and a great website http://www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com/swimming_tips/cold_water    

1) We would like more GPs, and we will train more, but this will take ages. In the absence of a secret GP growing tree, GPs should concentrate on things that work and stop doing things that don’t work. No more Healthchecks programme, end dementia screening, no targets for writing advance care plans (done instead […]

Dear David and Jeremy   I know that you don’t want the Torys to be  known as the Nasty Party. But you have scored an own goal with your manifesto. I am going to focus on two paragraphs only. They are on page 28. The first sentence says “We will work to eliminate child poverty […]

sent to LRB just now after this http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n06/letters Professor June Andrews says, of dementia that “The sooner someone sues a GP for failure to diagnose as early as possible, the better.” It is disturbing that Andrews, responding to Francis on the subject of dementia screening, is seemingly not aware of the evidence base. Screening is always […]

From about 10.30 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05q508v#auto Tories and over 75s access http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/10/conservatives-plug-nhs-funding-gap and chemist access to cholesterol/glc screening https://www.conservatives.com/~/media/files/green%20papers/a%20healthier%20nation.ashx?dl=true Lib Dems and skype Doctors criticise Royal College’s ‘disgraceful’ handling of PA debate Labour and private providers http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-32088860 and manifesto http://b.3cdn.net/labouruk/89012f856521e93a4d_phm6bflfq.pdf SNP http://www.snp.org/vision/healthier-scotland/health-and-wellbeing Life expectancy in Scotland http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Life-expectancy-in-Scotland-1160.aspx impact  of mental illness on mortality http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0019590

I’m starting work on a new book. As part of this, I’m keen to speak to doctors, nurses, midwives, axillary nurses, porters, radiographers, technicians, anyone who worked in the NHS many decades ago – you may have retired recently or a few years back, but have had experience of the NHS in any part of […]

Patients and doctors need to be on the same side. I keep saying this, probably quite pointlessly, but it’s true; we are not each others’ enemy. If we become so, not only are we making the NHS a battleground, a horrible place for patients, and an unhappy place to work, but also an unsustainable organisation. […]

Hospital inpatient care: almost 900 more admissions per day compared to previous year http://www.hscic.gov.uk/article/6053/Hospital-inpatient-care-almost-900-more-admissions-per-day-compared-to-previous-year New figures show that NHS hospitals in England dealt with 15.5 million3 admissions4 in 2013-14 – the equivalent of 42,400 per day. The figure is 870 more per day on average than in 2012-135, according to a report by the Health […]

Australian frailty intervention trial http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/11/65 other intervention trials for frailty of note http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa020423#t=articleMethods http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003999306003510 http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJM199406233302501 systematic review from 2008 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/8/278 and 2012 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210833512000238   “Slow walking speed (less than 0.8m/s or taking more than 5 secs to walk 4m); the PRISMA 7 questionnaire and the timed-up-and-go test (with a cut off score of 10 secs) […]

NHS England advice Click to access pregabalin-guidance.pdf Click to access pregabalin-faqs.pdf Court judgement Jan 15 http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Patents/2015/72.html approved judgement,  March 15 Click to access Judgment.pdf “we therefore think it is important for you to understand that we believe the supply of generic pregabalin for use in treatment of pain, whist the pain patent remains in force […]