Dr Everington is a doctor at the politicians’ favourite, the Bromley by Bow Centre, as well as being a ‘professional member’ of the College of Medicine. It’s interesting to note the links with his practice, which is noted on their website as covering a very deprived area of London, and the ‘Inside Out Health and […]
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 →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 →The Kings Fund on GP referral management centres
I’m not quite sure what I think of the King’s Fund: some of their papers seem to me to miss the point: academic distance from reality can be damaging. They have examined Referral Management Centres and concluded that they aren’t very good, which was obvious to GPs but lost on politicians. Quite interesting. What I […]
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 →Swine flu in the UK – how reliable are the numbers?
So how exactly do we know that there are – as the Health Protection Agency says -around 55,000 new cases of H1N1 “swine” flu each week – especially now that we are no longer swabbing patients before prescribing for it? Extrapolation. The HPA does give a range, between 30,000 and 85,000 cases. There are […]
Continue Reading →Health alert on the lure of cancer screening
A rather disappointing debate recorded in Hansard on the subject of screening for cancer in men. Unfortunately the extremely important issues of effectiveness, evidence, and potential harms seem to have become lost, e.g. “the government is committed to introducing screening for prostate cancer” – but since the evidence is mixed but much of it shows that it does more harm than […]
Continue Reading →Health choices: and smoking in psychiatric hospitals
An interesting survey has been published by the Foundation for Mental Health. It’s called “Death of the smoking den, The initial impact of no smoking legislation in psychiatric units in England in 2008.” In the introduction to the report, Louis Appleby, the National Director for Mental Health is quoted as having said in 2007 “The rest of […]
Continue Reading →Management consultants in the NHS
If you have read the book Plundering the Public Sector (David Craig and Richard Brooks) or NHS plc (Allyson Pollock), then the concerns over the costs to the NHS of management consultants will not be news. A report echoing this was released by the House of Commons Health Committee at the end of last week […]
Continue Reading →How much do Independent Treatment Centres cost?
Independent Sector Treatment Centres (ISTCs) were part of this governments plans for the NHS. GPs were encouraged to use them: this was meant to be the epitome of “patient choice”. But not only have many contracts been issued on a “take or pay” basis, the cost efficiencies of these units have not been hauled up for scrutiny. Professor […]
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