Pulse articles from August 2005

Pulse archives from August 2005

GMC calls for PCT dossier on every GP.(Interview)
August 6, 2005... The GMC is demanding PCTs set up a comprehensive performance dossier on every GP to weed out poorly performing or potentially dangerous doctors. In an exclusive interview with Pulse, GMC president Professor Sir Graeme Catto said PCTs were...

Antibiotics may speed recovery from child flu.
August 6, 2005... Antibiotics may speed up children's recovery from flu, surprising new results from GP research reveal. Study leader Dr Anthony Harnden said his work might suggest a `new paradigm', challenging the notion of a purely viral or purely...

Chaos feared as flu vaccine supplies delayed by a month.(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... Another chaotic winter for flu vaccine supplies looms for GPs after manufacturers admitted deliveries could be delayed. The European Vaccine Manufacturers said there would be production delays of three to four weeks after late delivery of...

No money to pay GPs for new at-risk flu groups.
August 6, 2005... GPs face having to immunise large numbers of patients against influenza for free after PCTs warned there was no money left to fund local enhanced services. The Government last week announced it was expanding the flu campaign to cover...

Age no handicap to GP in practice for 57 years.(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... Dr Alan Merson has laid what appears an unassailable claim to be the UK's longest serving GP, having totted up 57 years' service at his Leeds practice. Despite officially retiring 16 years ago, 83-year-old Dr Merson still fits three...

GPs facing major pension losses.(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... GPs stand to lose thousands of pounds a year from their final pension unless they have a March 31 year end, the GPC has admitted. Under complicated new pension rules, GPs who submit their accounts earlier in the financial year will lose out...

NICE wants bar raised in next version of quality framework.(National Institute for Clinical Excellence)
August 6, 2005... NICE's submission to the quality review team calls for tougher targets for diabetes and hypertension. On top of that, it wants to introduce 40 new clinical indicators By Nerys Hairon GPs face tougher targets and a swathe of new...

We made an error over ABCD guidance, says BHS.(British Hypertension Society)(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... The British Hypertension Society has admitted to `an error' after a drug company circulated an altered version of the ABCD rules to GPs. Merck Sharpe & Dohme last week said it had received permission from the BHS to switch round ACE...

News in brief: GPs strike off complainers.(general practitioners remove patients who complain)(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... Increasing numbers of GPs are removing patients who make complaints, a Healthcare Commission report shows. Its monthly report on complaints cited the issue as a major source of cases relating to primary care services. The Commission...

News in brief: Bowel Ca screening to start.(bowel cancer screening)(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... Bowel cancer screening will be rolled out from April next year, the Government has announced. Home faecal occult blood testing kits will be sent out to all people aged between 60 and 69 and individuals over the age of 70 will be screened...

News in brief: GP's widow to sue PCT.(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... Dr Stephen Farley's widow is to sue the PCT and strategic health authority which carried out an investigation into his referral rates. Dr Farley hanged himself in January last year after suffering stress as a result of the three-year...

News in brief: Alert over cholangitis.(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... The Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin has warned GPs to be on the lookout for cases of acute cholangitis. A DTB review found one in 11 patients admitted to hospital with gallstone disease has the infection, which can be fatal and requires...

News in brief: Counterfeit drug warning.(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency is recalling thousands of packs of Lipitor after detecting counterfeit products in the supply chain. The 004405KI batch imported into the country in February will now be withdrawn, and...

Ministers `miss the point' on patient choice agenda.(National Primary Care Research and Development Centre)
August 6, 2005... The Government is ignoring what patients really want from the NHS by pursuing its drive to increase choice, two separate reports conclude. Consumer watchdog Which? said ministers' belief that choice would lead to better services was...

Matrons added to GP's workload.(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... Dr Bruce Allen is infuriated by a local community matron service over inappropriate referrals and unnecessary workload. Dr Allen, a GP in Worthing, West Sussex, said his PCT employed a team of community matrons at a cost of #35,000 each -...

Patients oblivious to relevance of MRCGP.(Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners )(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... Patients see no difference in quality between GPs with the MRCGP and those without, research has concluded. The study of 15,534 patients at 50 practices published online by Family Practice concluded: `Any advantage in physician quality...

Stroke prevention bias.
August 6, 2005... GPs are treating women less rigorously than men for secondary prevention of stroke. A study of 61 practices found women were 27 per cent less likely to receive an ACE inhibitor and 16 per cent less likely to receive anti- platelet therapy...

GPs worry appraisal will be tougher.
August 6, 2005... GPs are content with the current appraisal system but fear it will be `hijacked' by a tougher new revalidation process, a Pulse survey has found. Of almost 200 GPs who responded, 56 per cent considered appraisal a valuable experience. ...

Exception reporting data to be included in QMAS.(Quality Measurement Advisory Service)(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... Exception reporting data will be included in QMAS reports from October, the Department of Health has announced. The change will enable PCTs to compare the percentage levels of exception reporting for each disease area in individual...

Coming your way: `Caesareans harm future fertility'.(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... The story Giving birth by Caesarean reduces a woman's chance of having another baby, The Daily Express, The Daily Mail, The Times, The Independent and The Sun report. The source A study of 25,000 mothers published in the British...

Coming your way: `Jabs ease diabetic nerve pain'.(diabetes research)(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... The story A course of injections could ease diabetic nerve pain, BBC News Online reports. The source University of Manchester researchers found increasing production of vascular endothelial growth factor in animals protected...

Coming your way: `Cannabis may relieve IBD'.(Cannabis to treat inflammatory bowel disease)(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... The story Cannabis could treat inflammatory bowel disease, The Daily Telegraph and BBC News Online claim. The source A study in Gastroenterology found patients with IBD possessed numerous cannabinoid receptors in their guts,...

Regulator rules against CVD warnings on NSAIDs.(Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents for cardiovascular diseases)
August 6, 2005... Conventional NSAIDs are unlikely to pose a substantial cardiovascular risk and there is no need for GPs to change their use of the drugs, regulators have ruled. The European Medicines Agency and the UK's Medicines and Healthcare Products...

GPs to get immunisation training.(general practitioners)(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... GPs may be required to attend annual immunisation update training days under new minimum standards set out by the Health Protection Agency. The HPA is introducing the new national standards after carrying out a survey of English PCTs which...

Hip patients all low in vit D.(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... Hip fracture patients are `almost universally' deficient in vitamin D, a new study reveals. The researchers said doctors should `do all they can' to encourage patients to adhere to vitamin D supplementation. A retrospective analysis of...

GPs are `missing opportunity' to prevent smoking-related illness.
August 6, 2005... GPs are missing a `major public health opportunity' to prevent smoking- related disease, a new study suggests. The research found just 6.4 per cent of smokers were being prescribed smoking cessation treatment by their GP - with those free...

`Overwhelming' case for aortic aneurysm screening.(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... Ultrasound screening for abdominal aortic aneurysms in general practice is feasible and cuts the rate of ruptures, new research finds. The study leaders said the case for national screening was now `overwhelming'. The Government's...

Journal watch: Race linked to stroke survival.(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... Black people are more likely to survive a stroke than white people, a UK study has found. Although black people are at an increased risk of stroke, their five- year survival rates were found to be better at 57 per cent compared with 36 per...

Journal watch: Echinacea no benefit in colds.(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... Echinacea has no significant benefits in the prevention or treatment of the common cold, a placebo-controlled trial has found. Researchers gave one of three different Echinacea augustifola extracts or a placebo to 399 volunteers before and...

Journal watch: Asthma a risk for stroke.
August 6, 2005... Asthma may be an independent risk factor for stroke in middle-aged people, US researchers have found.They compared self-reported and doctor-diagnosed asthma with incidents of cardiovascular disease in 13,501 adults aged 45-64 who were followed...

Journal watch: Condom use prevents Chlamydia.
August 6, 2005... Using condoms is an effective way of preventing Chlamydia trachomatis infections. An American study compared C. trachomatis infection rates according to condom use among 1,455 patients attending a public STD clinic. Among those who had...

Journal watch: CRP predicts CVD death.(C-reactive protein predicts cardiovascular disease)(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... C-reactive protein (CRP) concentration is an important predictor of 10- year cardiovascular death risk in newly diagnosed patients with inflammatory polyarthritis, UK research finds. Some 506 patients with inflammatory polyarthritis were...

Drop in GP registrars puts blight on recruitment.
August 6, 2005... GP registrar numbers are stagnating, latest Government figures reveal. Statistics released by the Department of Health show the number of registrars in training fell by four, to 2,435 in the year to March 2005. The findings are further...

Urban areas find recruiting GPs harder.(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... Urban areas have almost four times as many long-standing GP vacancies as rural areas, Government figures show. The GP Practice Vacancies Survey for 2005 shows 4.2 per cent of all GP positions in urban areas are vacancies that have been open...

Belfast GP attacked at on-call centre.(general practitioners)(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... An attack on an urgent care centre in Belfast has left a GP with an injured arm and led to calls for more protection for doctors working out of hours. Dr Geraldine McKenna was showered with glass after thugs hurled a brick through the...

Anger over referrals cap.(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... GPs in Portsmouth have hit out at a local hospital for bouncing back neurology referrals to hit waiting time targets. Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust has set a limit on the number of neurology referrals it will handle after a...

New research is `final nail in the coffin' for co-proxamol use.
August 6, 2005... Co-proxamol is far more lethal than other paracetamol combination analgesics and should not be prescribed under any circumstances, researchers have concluded. Their study found that an overdose with co-proxamol was more than 10 times more...

Study highlights value of flu vaccine in COPD.
August 6, 2005... The importance of encouraging COPD patients to attend for flu immunisation is highlighted by research revealing a link between exacerbations of the disease and respiratory virus outbreaks in children. Adult hospital admissions for acute...

Editorial comment: Patients want continuity not masses of choices.(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... It is not possible to give patients everything they want from the NHS. If it were, patients would be escorted from massage chairs in the waiting room to their half-hour GP consultation. Their regular GP would prescribe antibiotics, hot-stone...

Letter: We're not at war over enhanced services - yet.(Letter to the Editor)
August 6, 2005... I was surprised to read your articles relating to enhanced services and the fact the `battle had been lost'. I had not actually realise we were supposed to be at war. I have tried to work constructively with the local health board and...

Letter: nGMS has taken away incentive to recruit partners.(Letter to the Editor)
August 6, 2005... I am writing to express my dissatisfaction at the way nGMS took away the incentive to recruit GPs as new partners. It is true that new GPs are less willing to take over the responsibility to work as partners initially, but equally the new...

Soapbox: How Roy Meadow saved my patient.
August 6, 2005... Dr Martin Shutkever feels he has to redress the balance over paediatrician Roy Meadow At 10.30pm on a miserable winter's evening in 1989 I received a phone call asking me to visit a child who was going blue and kept stopping breathing. At...

Letter: Either - not both - for ticks.(Letter to the Editor)
August 6, 2005... Thank you for the interesting article in your clinical section by Dr Philip Welsby of the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh about treating tick bites and Lyme disease (July 23). It is possible to buy tick removers from pet shops and I...

Letter: GPs of all races face nonsense GMC complaints.(Letter to the Editor)
August 6, 2005... Unfortunately it is not only Asian doctors who face GMC referral after a nonsensical complaint from an annoyed and unreasonable patient. I face such a complaint because a patient did not like a report I did for her employer. Even now I feel...

New template.(Commission for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence)(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... The `new' template of sanctions for guilty doctors produced by the Commission for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (News, July 23) is based on a GMC model that the council has operated for some years. * Copyright: CMP Information Ltd.

Letter: Why bonky patient needed admission.(Letter to the Editor)
August 6, 2005... I just had to send you this consultant's letter. What was the secretary thinking and why on earth didn't she check out the last sentence? Dear Dr Stern I have seen this patient of yours today. His lower urinary tract symptoms have not...

Letter: GMC divided over adjudication role.(Letter to the Editor)
August 6, 2005... You quoted me as saying the GMC believed its adjudication role should be given to an independent body `set up by the Government with input from the profession but not paid for by the profession' (News, July 23). When the GMC debated this...

Letter: How do nurse practitioners lack expertise?(Letter to the Editor)
August 6, 2005... Regarding the story headed `GPs cost less than nurse practitioners' (News, July 23), I work as a nurse practitioner in a busy general practice and get paid much less than any GP. I was trained by my GP colleagues to deal with minor illness...

ANDY JONES: A cuckoo in the healthcare nest.
August 6, 2005... Dr Andy Jones is a GP in Stamford, Lincolnshire Yet another group of non health specialists has had a go at shaping the future of our health service The right wing Adam Smith Institute has considered whether our healthcare system meets...

Prepare now for the mother of all tax bills.
August 6, 2005... Recent pay rises mean next year most GPs will face a hefty tax bill. Dr John Couch says you need to prepare now It is no secret that GP principal income levels have jumped during the 2004/5 financial year, after many years of stagnating....

Check competence when you delegate.
August 6, 2005... Delegation to other clinical staff makes good sense, but GPs need to comply with GMC guidance to ensure staff are suitably qualified and competent, says Dr Paul Colbrook Teamwork and delegation are vital components of modern primary care....

DELEGATION: Case example.(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... A GP saw a man who requested syringing of his right ear. On examination the GP suspected that the patient had impacted wax, and advised using oil to soften it, and asked the patient to see the nurse a week later to have the ear syringed. ...

Adapting to the fast-changing world of arthritis analgesia.
August 6, 2005... With the options for treatment fast disappearing, Dr Iain Gilchrist updates advice for GPs In the past few months, following the withdrawal of rofecoxib (Vioxx), there has been a deluge of bad news for GPs and their patients suffering from...

GP dilemma 1.(general practitioners)(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... A 60-year-old male, with a 30-year history of rheumatoid arthritis, treated with DMARDs and indometacin for many years. Co-morbidities of hiatus hernia for 20 years, heart failure for 15 years, thought to be due to aortic valve disease and...

GP dilemma 2.
August 6, 2005... A 55-year-old man has a 10-year history of severe OA of his hands. Also 10-year history of angina, treated with angioplasty nine years ago. No gastrointestinal disorder. Treated with simvastatin for hypercholesterolaemia, aspirin, and...

My QOF plea: Osteoporosis should be in the QOF.(Quality and Outcomes Framework)
August 6, 2005... Dr Jonathan Bayly argues that including osteoporosis could have a huge impact on public health Evidence exists on the efficacy and cost-effectiveness for osteoporosis to be included in the next QOF. On efficacy we have randomised...

Journal shortcuts: geriatrics.
August 6, 2005... Chris Dunstan is a GP in Woking, Surrey - he sat on the external reference group of the national service framework for older people and is a member of the NHS older people's task group Tired of wading through journals? Overwhelmed by too...

Surviving year 2 without burning out.
August 6, 2005... The third of four articles looking at the new contract and its effects one year on Some GPs have had to throw everything at the QOF in year 1 `including the kitchen sink', says Dr John Heather. He advises how to sustain those changes and...

How we made the quantum leap on hypertension.
August 6, 2005... Northdown Practice profile 10,700 patients 7 GPs (6 WTE) 1 Nurse practitioner 2 Practice nurses 2 Health care assistants The wall of pain This is what our workload for hypertension involved in the year 2003/4...

Should statins be taken in the evening?
August 6, 2005... How convincing is the evidence suggesting it makes any difference? Bandolier editors Dr Andrew Moore and Professor Henry McQuay assess the most recent studies Most manufacturers of statins recommend they are taken at night because...

CV: Dr Gillian Braunold answers the Pulse careers questionnaire.(Interview)
August 6, 2005... What/who made you decide to go into general practice? I have always wanted to be a doctor. It was the desire to be the person with whom the buck stopped responsibility-wise, combined with medicine, that inspired me. I didn't know anything...

Let's practise in: Ipswich.(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... Each week we take a GP's-eye view of an area of the UK - if you would like to contribute, see the red panel below Where? Suffolk. What? `...a flourishing county town. Ipswich is hard to beat...' Ipswich Borough Council Work? The...

Time to turn the focus onto the softer aspects of GP care.
August 6, 2005... Pulse has asked a selection of prominent GPs to write open letters to ministers to contribute to the Government's heavily trailed `listening exercise' on future primary care policy. This week, Professor Martin Roland has his say Dear...

DoH to ramp up targets for diabetes pay.(Department of Health)
August 13, 2005... EXCLUSIVE Department wants to bring QOF in line with tougher NICE guidelines, says the diabetes tsar - Daniel Cressey reports The Government is determined to force through tougher targets and raised thresholds for diabetes in the next...

Retinopathy screening lottery.(Brief Article)
August 13, 2005... The difficulties faced by GPs in hitting diabetes targets are highlighted by new figures revealing huge variations in access to retinopathy screening. The Department of Health data, released under the Freedom of Information Act, show that while...

GMC plan may lead to GPs concealing illness.(General Medical Council)(Brief Article)
August 13, 2005... GMC proposals to toughen systems for dealing with sick doctors will damage confidentiality and lead people to cover up medical problems, GPs are warning. A report from the GMC's health review group released this week calls for details of a...

Government plans `will shift power to hospitals'.
August 13, 2005... The latest NHS changes will force PCTs to contract services to hospitals and private firms, warn experts - by Ian Cameron Government plans to bar PCTs from providing services will speed up private sector involvement in the NHS and could...

Surgery happy with 12-hour opening.(Brief Article)
August 13, 2005... The doors to Dr Dinesh Kapoor's surgery have been open 12 hours a day, seven days a week, since last November. It is one of three practices piloting the `Eight till Eight' opening that North East London strategic health authority wants to see...

London GPs reject long hours plans.(Brief Article)
August 13, 2005... GPs in north-east London will be among the first subjected to some of the Government's latest plans for improving access to primary care. Documents from North East London strategic health authority reveal proposals to enforce...

GPs most negative about NHS reforms.(National Health Service)(Brief Article)
August 13, 2005... GPs are more negative than any other members of the health service about the Government's reform of the NHS, research has shown. The research, commissioned by the Department of Health and released under the Freedom of Information Act, found...

Inaccurate sphygmos cause mass errors in diagnosis.
August 13, 2005... Huge swathes of the UK population are missing out on hypertension treatment or taking drugs unnecessarily because of inaccuracies in equipment for measuring blood pressure, a new study reveals. Study leader Professor Andrew Shennan, the...

`Train GPs to refuse sicknotes' - Blunkett.(Brief Article)
August 13, 2005... GPs should be given training by employment and occupational health advisers in how to deal with sicknote requests, Work and Pensions Secretary David Blunkett has said. Mr Blunkett said there was a `big problem with the way doctors grant...

Health trainers will be `a fat lot of use'.(Brief Article)
August 13, 2005... GPs have attacked Government plans to introduce personal health trainers for patients in disadvantaged areas as a `gimmick'. The Department of Health said health trainers, who will provide diet and lifestyle advice, would be introduced in...

NEWS IN BRIEF: Triptans next in line for OTC.(over the counter drugs)(Brief Article)
August 13, 2005... Triptans are set to be the next class of prescription drugs to be made available over-the-counter, as predicted by Pulse in January. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announced a consultation on switching...

NEWS IN BRIEF: No vaccine overload effect.(Brief Article)
August 13, 2005... Receiving multiple vaccinations does not increase a child's risk of being hospitalised for an untargeted infectious disease, a study shows. The Danish researchers said their analysis refuted suggestions that multiple vaccinations could...

NEWS IN BRIEF: BP advice may be revised.(Brief Article)
August 13, 2005... A combined NICE/British Hypertension Society working group is to meet this month to discuss revising hypertension guidance in light of the ASCOT trial, Pulse has learned. The organisations aim to agree a joint response to the trial, which...

NEWS IN BRIEF: NHS 24 call-back 49 minutes.(National Health Service)(Brief Article)
August 13, 2005... Patients are waiting an average of 49 minutes to be called back by NHS 24, latest figures show. The waiting time is down from a high of 68 minutes in March this year, but compares with eight minutes when the service launched in 2002. ...

NEWS IN BRIEF: Performance data delayed.(Brief Article)
August 13, 2005... The release of national-level data on practice's quality framework performance has been delayed by the Government. The Department of Health shelved plans to release provisional data for 2004/5 on August 5 because of a large number of...

Failures of GP monitoring cited for asthma deaths.
August 13, 2005... Pressure for more stringent asthma targets is growing - Rob Finch reports Asthma patients who are not regularly monitored by their GP are more likely to die from their disease, a major new study concludes. The researchers implicated...

GPs' allergic disease treatment under fire.
August 13, 2005... GPs need additional training in the treatment of allergic disease to tackle `considerable potential deficiencies in standards of care', researchers conclude. Their audit of 188 GPs with a self-declared interest in allergies uncovered...

Spirometry crucial in diagnosis of COPD.(chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)(Brief Article)
August 13, 2005... More than a quarter of COPD diagnoses could be wrong if they are made without using reversibility testing. Norwegian research casts doubts on attempts to have one of the most controversial clinical indicators in the quality framework...

GPs shun unlicensed MMR vaccine in indemnity row.(Measles-mumps-rubella )
August 13, 2005... GPs are boycotting use of unlicensed German and US MMR vaccines in protest at the failure of the Department of Health or PCTs to provide indemnity. One LMC reported that GPs in the area had dumped unlicensed vaccines back at their PCT and...

Bupropion `cleared' of sudden death worry.(Brief Article)
August 13, 2005... The smoking cessation therapy bupropion does not increase the risk of sudden death, a new study reports. Researchers concluded the safety fears over bupropion were unfounded after analysing records from 9,329 smokers who had been...

COMING YOUR WAY: `Vaccine cures flu for life'.(Brief Article)
August 13, 2005... THE STORY A vaccine could protect against flu for life, the Daily Mail and BBC News Online report. THE SOURCE The Cambridge-based company Acambis announced it had started developing a `potentially breakthrough' influenza vaccine...