I’ve said it so many times I am boring myself, but if you want to save money in the NHS it’s not so hard to do it. Choose and Book, all NHS logos and branding, all NHS advertising health promotion campaigns, NHS Direct for all except acute care, the electronic records system, etc, etc, etc. […]
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
Continue Reading →..and on Dr Sam Everington, at the Bromley by Bow Centre….
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 →Compression only CPR works
..another study tells it like it is, this one, from JAMA. This isn’t the first bit of evidence that says so, either. Yet every year I have to go and be ‘refreshed’ in the finer points of CPR. We have to pay lots of this, and it is becoming silly – for the last three […]
Continue Reading →Mass effect
I don’t think that most public health messages work effectively. For example; ‘Make a date for cervical screening” “check your breasts” “have you been immunised against flu?” etc, etc. Mainly, I don’t think soundbites tell the whole truth, and I don’t think that mass messaging treats people as individuals. Nor do public health campaigns seek […]
Continue Reading →Emperors with their cuffs rolled up
The DoH ‘Bare Below the Elbows’ theme has been going on for a few years now. The original document, you may remember, is here, from 2007, and stated that research on workwear and infection prevention had been done, was not yet published, but contained the following: “There is no conclusive evidence that uniforms (or other […]
Continue Reading →300K for a GP?
The average GP doesn’t earn this much, but anyway, earning 300K as an NHS GP is now possible. How? The usual way is for one GP to be the managing director of several NHS surgeries. Most will employ salaried doctors and nurses to deliver care; the profit becomes singularly that of the managing doctor/director. It’s […]
Continue Reading →Tell me the truth about Fit Notes
So the big idea was that people who were off work due to illness might be able to do some work, perhaps not their regular work, or perhaps people returning to work while recovering from illness might be better having a graduated return. Rather than simply signing people off work while ill and then back […]
Continue Reading →Avastin and cost effectiveness
I can’t understand the blame being apportioned in press coverage over NICE’s decision not to fund Avastin, or bevacizumab, for the treatment of advanced bowel cancer. Many patients groups are laying the blame with NICE. Is this fair? The important bit to me is ‘cost effectiveness’. It isn’t about either cost or effectiveness alone. While […]
Continue Reading →Is your doctor a ‘high flyer’ or a ‘rule bound’?
The latest on AstraZeneca, who are having to pay 198 million US dollars to patients who have developed diabetes on the anti psychotic drug quetiapine is only one bit of a long story. The challenge being made is that the weight gain and tendency to diabetes for some patients was known by AstraZeneca but not acknowledged fully on the […]
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