Press release the other day: 100th traditional herbal registration granted The number of herbal products registered under the Traditional Herbal Registration (THR) scheme hit the 100 mark today increasing consumer choice for safe herbal products across the UK. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) THR scheme has been designed so that the public […]
Continue Reading →Iatrogenesis: telling patients about radiation risks
The BMJ carries a good editorial today about the risks of radiation as used in clinical practice, and suggests that we should be informing patients about the dangers as well as being careful about the use of it. But the biggest issue for me is not consent for radiation as used to investigate potentially serious […]
Continue Reading →The GMC’s response to that ATOS article
is here, which is in return a reply to a letter from Dr Cooper saying that doctors seeing people within ATOS centres aren’t really in a ‘normal’ doctor patient relationship. I cut and paste Jane O’Brien, Assistant Director, Standards & Fitness to Practise Directorate General Medical Council, 350 Euston Road, London, NW1 3JN “Edward Cooper is […]
Continue Reading →Invitation – free debate in London
If anyone can give idiot-proof advice as to how to upload a pdf, do let me know. Otherwise here is a cut and paste; it’s a (free!) afternoon of debate about whether or not journalists are bad for health. There may be a point, but for me the bigger issue is that scientists and their […]
Continue Reading →How useful are lifetime risks of disease?
Free access to an article in the BMJ about the hype over ‘1 in 8’ women will get breast cancer, here.
Continue Reading →Care and Compassion
The health Ombudsman has released a report saying that not enough is being done for elderly people in the NHS. The report has been published widely in the UK press, with many opinion pieces resulting from it. It’s a report in that it consists of ten narratives based on ten complaints. To that end, I’m […]
Continue Reading →111 – where’s the evidence?
Calling 111 instead of your GP? New plans say that we will not be allowed to operate our own appointment systems but to have a call centre do it for us. Call centres work to PROTOCOLS. We in our practice work because the receptionists know people who are a bit vulnerable or chronically unwell – […]
Continue Reading →Cancer Research UK and 1 in 8
Radio 4 news: “1 in 8 women will get breast cancer”. It’s based on a press release from Cancer Research UK. And it is not helpful: these are the figures, below, for risk of breast cancer you want to know (from their press release) . At present, the headline figure media outlets are using isn’t helpful, and […]
Continue Reading →Dr Andrew Lansley’s monster
Fantastic editorial in the BMJ. “What do you call a government that embarks on the biggest upheaval of the NHS in its 63 year history, at breakneck speed, while simultaneously trying to make unprecedented financial savings? The politically correct answer has got to be: mad. The scale of ambition should ring alarm bells. Sir David […]
Continue Reading →Well enough to work
An article about Atos and their work capability assessments, in the BMJ, here. I am finding, often, a distinct lack of co-operation when it comes to polite and basic questions being asked of companies who are contracted to provide services to the Government. I wanted to know about Atos recruitment, audit and training; they didn’t […]
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