The World Health Organisation are presenting their findings of a three year investigation into the ‘social determinants of health’ today. The report is available here. We are all used to hearing that the latest health news is ‘shocking’ and ‘appalling’, but this report is a rare exception – it does actually deserve these descriptions. Life expectancy in one […]
Continue Reading →NICE, not easy
Moan as we do about the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), which decides which drugs should be available on the NHS, the idea that there should be a rationale about rationing has been received rather differently across the Atlantic. In the US $2,000bn is spent annually on healthcare, but only 0.1% of this is […]
Continue Reading →Over-the-counter Chlamydia treatments: is it all good news?
Pharmacists were reportedly delighted with a new scheme, just announced, to allow for azithromycin, an antibiotic, to be made available without a doctors’ prescription. This drug is a treatment for the sexually transmitted infection Chlamydia. Since Chlamydia infection can be without symptoms, and since, if it is left untreated over time, it can lead to […]
Continue Reading →Nurses at the door
It was reported today that East Lancashire Primary Care Trust have a plan to deal with overweight schoolchildren. When the children return to school after the summer holidays they are to be weighed, and, if overweight, apparently they and their families will be ‘cold-called’ by nurses, who will then encourage them to lose weight. But […]
Continue Reading →Should pharmaceutical firms make cancer drugs more affordable?
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence is proposing that four drugs licensed for the treatment of renal cancer are not to be funded; they are not, we are told, ‘cost effective’. Charities, doctors groups and patients are reported today as condemning the situation with strong criticism of NICE. However, there are surely other criticisms due. If the […]
Continue Reading →The “Botox Dollar”
There is an interesting and worrying piece in the New York Times about dermatologists in the US. The charge is that patients attending with medical skin complaints are treated as second class compared with those patients seeking cosmetic interventions. The latter make more money for the MDs. The insurance company payout for seeing people with ‘ordinary’ medical skin […]
Continue Reading →The impressive NHS
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 →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 […]
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