In May 2011 NICE published draft guidance on caesarian sections which were not medically necessary. The guidance they have drafted is cut and pasted below. Over the weekend there was extensive coverage of the guidance. Here is the Daily Mail, Channel 4 News, The Sun, and the Independent; there was also a Press Association notice. It all […]
Continue Reading →Are GPs failing new mothers with postnatal depression?
According to the Guardian, on the 1st October, we GPs are. I quote Ann Longfield, chief executive of 4Children, on a survey done of new mothers, which supposedly show most are offered antidepressants, not counselling : “Longfield said that the results of the report were shocking and showed that postnatal depression was not being taken seriously: “It […]
Continue Reading →Commercialisation, post conception, and via your GP
Excellent article in the Guardian about the National Childbirth Trust. The NCT have found that some hospitals are paying 5K to allow access to companies to come on to antenatal wards to sell their wares; photographs of babies, free samples of nappies, etc. I have complained about this before, in my own antenatal care. I […]
Continue Reading →Bayesian and needles in haystacks: why medicine is difficult to do well
and why protocols are not the answer to good diagnosis and risk management. Excellent BMJ editorial telling it like it is. “identifying those febrile young children with the greatest risk for serious infection at the time of clinical presentation is like looking for a needle in a haystack.” Essentially, if you have a child with […]
Continue Reading →If your kids haven’t had your MMR…
now is the time. 330 cases in England in last 4 months. 4,000 cases so far this year in France. Some have died. The WHO says that 18 children die hourly from this preventable illness. MMR is free from your local NHS surgery.
Continue Reading →FEAST clinical trial
You can do high quality research work in rural Uganda – randomised controlled trials save lives. This video is wonderful http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK9VUkL-DqU
Continue Reading →What’s happening to the National Confidential Inquiry into maternal and perinatal deaths?
For the last 50 years, every maternal and perinatal death has been independantly and carefully scrutinised. This audit is world-class: it has spotted problems, made recommendations, and raised the standard of maternity care for everyone. Not every speciality has this gold standard of examination: were that we did. The BMJ reports this week that the […]
Continue Reading →If you are suffering from…
homophobic bullying and especially if you are still at school, do watch this. Truly heartwarming.
Continue Reading →Oliver James vs Genetics
Rather a nasty spat on the Today programme this am; the issue being that of a paper on the genetics in Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, published online in the Lancet. The paper had found a slightly increased risk of ADHD with a particular genetic pattern. Having this pattern did not necessarily lead to autism. Children with […]
Continue Reading →Medicating children for ‘psychosis’
This very insightful article from the NY Times explores the consequences of labelling a pre-school child with behaviour problems with severe mental illness. This US view is disturbing, from the ease of which anti-psychotic medication is prescribed off-license, to the pharmaceutical company who supplied promotional building bricks to use in the waiting room. In the […]
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