So. The GMC say that they will investigate complaints against doctors working for Atos in the same way as any other doctor. See a statement, here: Niall Dickson, the Chief Executive of the General Medical Council, said: “We look at all complaints received carefully and take further action on those where there is evidence of […]
Continue Reading →Plos Medicine on Guantánamo Bay
A sobering and uncomfortable read. Which makes it important that we do
Continue Reading →Macmillan cancer
Did you know? that Macmillan nurses/consultants are funded by Macmillan for the first three years (but I know of several people funded for only two) – but the deal is that these posts must be then funded by the NHS but forever known by the moniker. So it’s always going to be Macmillan nurse Smith, […]
Continue Reading →Public appointments of note
for an Audit Committee and Lay Member of the General Chiropractic council.
Continue Reading →Everyone should read this
Allyson Pollack and David Price in the BMJ. How the secretary of state for health proposes to abolish the NHS in England
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 →Commissioning is bad for patients
I don’t know what the point is of getting rid of one layer or managers (in PCTs) only to replace them with doctors – how many hours have GPs already spent on commissioning palava in England? Whenever the NHS and politicians interact there is a consistent problem. No one ever values the core aspects of […]
Continue Reading →Shared decision making
Podcast recorded at BMA House last week. I hope they have edited out my slightly bad language.
Continue Reading →“Consent rituals”, meaningful decision making, and ethics
Gerd Gigerenzer and Muir Gray’s new book is out: Better Doctors, Better Patients, Better Decisions. The message is that patients have to be involved in making decisions about their health, and I couldn’t disagree. As Gigerenzer (one of my heroes) has pointed out in Reckoning with Risk, the numbers we base our decisions on, however, […]
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 – […]
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