I consider morale to be a rather important in the smooth workings of the NHS. True, some things in the NHS are done badly, and some things definitely need to improve. But we hear a lot more within the media about NHS failings rather than successes. This doesn’t just affect morale within the NHS. It […]
Continue Reading →Homeopathy – good news
One of the medical newspapers, Pulse, has a news article saying that there has been a drop in the number of homeopathic prescriptions by GPs in the UK. In 2005, there were 83,000 written, and in 2007, it had fallen to 49,300. This is good news. It could be that GPs are becoming more critical about the […]
Continue Reading →Column: When tests do more harm than good
Ever more medical tests are becoming must-haves. Now the glomeruli, the hardworking but scarcely acknowledged filters of the kidney, are at last to have their 15 minutes of fame. Taiwanese researchers, reporting recently in the Lancet, say we should all know how well ours are performing. However, the blood test to establish the “glomerular filtration […]
Continue Reading →Health Visitors: evidence and immunisations
What do Health Boards do when something works very well? Change it, of course. Health visitors are the senior and specialist nurses who work in general practice and take a special interest in new mothers and children. While a generation or two ago women might have had physically close relatives with whom to share information and […]
Continue Reading →Sir Liam and licenses
Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, has published his report today on the ‘principles and next steps’ of medical revalidation. The bottom line seems to be that doctors will have to undergo relicensing every five years. We have annual appraisals already, but appraisals are meant to be supportive and reflective. The new system will have end […]
Continue Reading →The latest wonder drug
The problem with so many ‘wonder drugs’ is that one is prone to wonder drug fatigue. So is the new prostate cancer drug, abiraterone, lauded on so many front pages today the real thing? “Cancer drug could save the lives of 10,000 a year” says the Times, and it’s a big ‘could’. It’s a bit unusual for a study containing only 21 patients […]
Continue Reading →Channel 4 and the ‘cervical cancer vaccine’
I am always dubious about being interviewed (I prefer asking the questions.) I worry about how able I am to say what I mean to say, and often realise there was a better way of saying what I was trying to – but half an hour after I’ve left the building. A piece I wrote last year about the ‘cervical cancer vaccine’ […]
Continue Reading →Incentives for incisions
The BBC are reporting that surgeons “could earn bonuses for successful operations”. Imperial College Healthcare Trust in London are said to be piloting such a scheme. The news has been greeted with general outrage on the BBC’s messageboard, and quite right too. The scheme presumes medical professionalism is dead. I don’t think it’s dead, but it is certainly […]
Continue Reading →Rate my doctor
Restaurants have toptable, teachers have ratemyteachers, and doctors are now to have views on them placed on the web at iwantgreatcare.org. This website has been designed to allow patients to rate their doctors for trust, listening and whether they would recommend them or not. When I first heard about it, I reckoned it was a silly idea likely […]
Continue Reading →Breast self examination – more harm than help
It seems so sensible to try and find breast cancers early. Yet the truth in medicine is often counterintuitive, and this is one such example. The headlines today are about breast self examination – regular exams done by women themselves looking for lumps – being ineffective to reduce deaths from breast cancer.
Continue Reading →