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 →The first day of (detox) Christmas
I forgot to put up the first detox press release of this Christmas season. I know I shouldn’t laugh, but I can’t help it. Sense about Science on detox remains good. ” Please see attached some information on Chris James’s brand new 12 Day Mind & Body Cleanse. I’ve also attached his biography so you […]
Continue Reading →Aspirin: don’t believe the hype. It’s still not a miracle drug
From yesterdays PM, Radio 4: Professor Peter Elwood, epidemiologist at Cardiff University: “I have always held that it is for the individual himself or herself to decide whether or not he or she would take aspirin – they should be told the risks or the benefits and it should be the patients or subjects value […]
Continue Reading →Healthcare charities and the uselessness of GPs (again)
..and so, again and again, that GPs are in some way ‘undertrained’. We aren’t specialists – we are generalists. It’s a different job, with different skills. But it’s a myth to repeat that just because a GPs doesn’t have specialist training somehow means that the doctor is incompetent or lacking in training. GP training consists […]
Continue Reading →Health insurance – on a TV near you
It was actually quite hard to track down the adverts for this piece from the BMJ. Thank goodness for Youtube
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