Patients and doctors need to be on the same side. I keep saying this, probably quite pointlessly, but it’s true; we are not each others’ enemy. If we become so, not only are we making the NHS a battleground, a horrible place for patients, and an unhappy place to work, but also an unsustainable organisation. […]

Hospital inpatient care: almost 900 more admissions per day compared to previous year http://www.hscic.gov.uk/article/6053/Hospital-inpatient-care-almost-900-more-admissions-per-day-compared-to-previous-year New figures show that NHS hospitals in England dealt with 15.5 million3 admissions4 in 2013-14 – the equivalent of 42,400 per day. The figure is 870 more per day on average than in 2012-135, according to a report by the Health […]

Australian frailty intervention trial http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/11/65 other intervention trials for frailty of note http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa020423#t=articleMethods http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003999306003510 http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJM199406233302501 systematic review from 2008 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/8/278 and 2012 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210833512000238   “Slow walking speed (less than 0.8m/s or taking more than 5 secs to walk 4m); the PRISMA 7 questionnaire and the timed-up-and-go test (with a cut off score of 10 secs) […]

NHS England advice Click to access pregabalin-guidance.pdf Click to access pregabalin-faqs.pdf Court judgement Jan 15 http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Patents/2015/72.html approved judgement,  March 15 Click to access Judgment.pdf “we therefore think it is important for you to understand that we believe the supply of generic pregabalin for use in treatment of pain, whist the pain patent remains in force […]

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/feb/17/sex-education-mandatory-all-schools-mps-demand http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/mar/09/sexual-consent-lessons-government-criticised-pshea-inadequate https://www.pshe-association.org.uk/news_detail.aspx?ID=1428 The two BMJ papers http://m.bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/3/e007834.full http://m.bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/3/e007837   noting In total, 23.9% of men compared with only 2.2% of women, cited pornography as a source (19.4% from internet-based pornography and 9.2% from pornographic magazines/films).Ons teenage pregnancy http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/vsob1/conception-statistics–england-and-wales/2012/sty-conception-rates.html Obesity and menarche http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22626490/?i=60&from=age%20menarche%20uk NHS advice on puberty http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Puberty/Pages/Introduction.aspx   Guidance from PSHE ? https://www.pshe-association.org.uk/content.aspx?CategoryID=1161  

Dear Sir Terence and Dr Wollaston   I note that the GMC does not just offer private healthcare insurance to its’ staff, but also BMI Healthcare Health Screening.   My concerns are   1) BMI Health Screening offers screening for diabetes, urinalysis, breast and testicular awareness, renal  and liver function tests, ‘gout’ test (a misnomer […]

Cochrane reviews http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD009825.pub2/abstract systematic review on dietary fats and  CVS risk http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1846638 other Med. diet evidencen (of varying quality) http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1200303 http://content.onlinejacc.org/article.aspx?articleid=1144261&issueno=11 http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1763229 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21854893

I spoke about – ensuring that the minutes of the last Council meeting reflected the fact that potential conflicts of interest in the authors of the Inquiry into Patient Centred Care in the 21st century report was noted -that GPs had to be able to lead in deciding what  their own learning needs are rather […]

Preventicum decided not to go to ASA council and have agreed to amend their adverts.   Because it’s informally resolved, the public don’t get to know what they have been told to change.   So here it is: they are no longer allowed to say that their non evidence based screening tests offer the “highest […]

this is a HUGELY important trial  Have a look at the patient information leaflet used with graphical information on benefit and harm informed choice lancet And then contrast it to the pink fluffy leaflet from the UK and ask yourself – who is treating women as autonomous, capable adults?