..will be printed this Saturday. It’s quite good fun doing a column but the dread and terror of getting things wrong doesn’t really improve with time. . .
Continue Reading →Prostate cancer screening: what do the papers actually say?
Lots of press attention has gathered around the latest research on prostate cancer screening. To be clear: there is no NHS screening programme for prostate cancer screening. Instead, if men want a screening PSA test they can ask for it from their GP. The DoH’s press release in response to the latest research looks like this: […]
Continue Reading →Ghosts in the machine
When I was a medical student, I went to lectures which told me that HRT was going to stop everything from dementia to heart attacks to teeth falling out. I hardly prescribe it now, such are the hazards, especially of breast cancer, and given that the long term benefits are not what we were sold. […]
Continue Reading →Is UK cancer survival so bad?
The idea that the UK is a bad place to get treated as cancer seems to have been accepted as truth by certain sections of the media. It just isn’t : I’ve been trying to say so for a while with no success whatsoever. Anyway this editorial in the BMJ looks at the reliablity of […]
Continue Reading →Do charities need a health warning?
On bad statistics used by health charities, in the BMJ. Have had quite a few messages from doctors and nurses basically approving but none of dissent or otherwise from charities. hmm…
Continue Reading →The scandal of poor diagnosis in dementia that’s not
New research is a ‘wake up call’ for GPs- at least, according to Professor Steven Field, who is quoted today in the Telegraph as saying that doctors are needing more training in recognising dementia symptoms. The paper is in the BMJ, here, and I am rather amazed at the conclusions that both Field and the […]
Continue Reading →Not I, Professor Field
Professor Field, outgoing chair of the college I spend a small fortune to be a member of, the Royal College of GPs, has been on the radio rather a lot today. The news is: he scribed a cross article for the Observer, saying that “…too many of us neglect our health and this is leading […]
Continue Reading →Waky up time: pathology isn’t black and white
..and if I remember much from histology, it often comes in shades of pink. The NYT today has an interesting article; shock horror – cancer that might not be. It focuses on the DCIS phenonema – if you have been reading for a while you’ll know that ductal carcinoma in situ is a ‘cancer’ that […]
Continue Reading →Will GP commissioning help patients get better?
I think not. I’ve spent a bit of time reading the new White Paper and associated fluff, I conclude that there are possibly two good things in it. I’ll get to them. But, oh, the jargon! And the rest of it! What on earth does ‘equity and excellence: liberating the NHS’ actually mean? I’m really […]
Continue Reading →Homeopathy: witch hunting or waste of money
etc, etc. I am getting quite bored of the homeopathy debate. It should have moved on a bit, really. So here is the state of play today: James Le Fanu in today’s Telegraph says the BMA, who have recently voted for NHS funding for homeopathy to be withdrawn, aren’t listening to patients but are instead […]
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