The Healthcare Commission have published a report today about the state of the NHS. On Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, they had Dr Michael Dixon speaking. He is a GP and chair of the NHS Alliance, as well as being a Trustee of Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health. Dr Dixon took issue with the charge […]
Continue Reading →Walk while you work
There is pressure being placed on employers to make their workplaces “healthier”. NICE released documents on this earlier this year, and this week the Scottish Executive have published their take on matters. What is the good employer to do? The recommendations focus on employers increasing the amount of exercise that employees take in the course of their […]
Continue Reading →Second Opinion: No easy hypertension treatment
The more one learns, the less one is certain of. This is as true in medicine as in life. Thousands of clinical studies have investigated the effects of hypertension treatments, yet there is still considerable uncertainty about which drugs are most effective. Meanwhile, many people with no history of cardiovascular disease are being diagnosed with […]
Continue Reading →The dinner party consultation
It is reported that Peter Mandelson recently ended up in hospital to be treated for a kidney stone. It is also reported that Lord Darzi, the health minister who believes polyclinics are the future, dined with Mr Mandelson, and was later called upon to see him professionally. Who knows what actually happened, but ‘dinner party’ consultations are an overwhelmingly […]
Continue Reading →Screening complications
Regular readers will know that I have concerns about many tests used in the UK for screening. Screening tests are used when people are well, with no symptoms of disease. The aim of screening is to pick up a disease process at an early, pre-symptomatic stage such that an effective intervention can be used to prevent complications. […]
Continue Reading →Testing, testing…
Free on the 6th November? You might be interested in this event on health testing. I do think there is a need for a public debate about the amount of medical testing kits or check-ups available over the counter, and outwith the NHS; their variable use, indications, drawbacks, regulation and – my main discontent – lack of fair information […]
Continue Reading →Home health check
High blood pressure is one of the most common diagnoses in primary care. Doctors are encouraged to treat it in order to reduce the risk of cardiovascular complications, such as heart attacks and strokes. There is, however, no fixed threshold for “high” blood pressure. It is a sliding scale, and when high becomes “too high” […]
Continue Reading →Pain and the Virgin Mary
There are lots of reports that “faith in God really can relieve pain” and such in the press at the moment. These reports are based on a study published in Pain (yep, medical journals have all the most exotic titles: Gut, Brain, Breast, Lung….) and the abstract is available here. Unsurprisingly, the research does not prove anything […]
Continue Reading →Cancer, poverty and pay-to-access journals
I had intended to use this evening to read the paper published by the British Journal of Cancer about survival rates from cancer over the past 20 years. This paper has had a lot of media attention. The upshot seems to be that people are living longer after a diagnosis of cancer, but those living in affluent areas (still) […]
Continue Reading →The medical mother
There are few things quite so embarrassing as being phoned by the school to be informed that your child, whom you saw just a few minutes earlier, is too ill to be at school. Then there is also the issue of the semi-miraculous recovery whereby a child claims severe symptoms in the morning, requiring room service, extra pillows, continuous supply […]
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