Hospital Doctor articles from February 2004

Hospital Doctor archives from February 2004

Rebuilding the reputation of pathology.(Royal College of Pathologists)(Interview)
February 5, 2004... One of Prof James Underwood's aims as president of the Royal College of Pathologists is to improve the profession's tarnished image. Frith Rayner talked to the self-confessed prankster about his plans for the future Prof James Underwood...

Charity struggles; to recruit specialist stroke consultant.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2004... A medical charity is struggling to hire a consultant to help eliminate the postcode lottery in stroke treatment in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke Association (NICHSA) said treatment of stroke patients in ordinary...

Prepare to take the fear out of public speaking.
February 5, 2004... In the second part of a series on how doctors can improve their presentation skills, Bob Mathers shows how public speaking need not be their greatest fear Years ago, I attended a lavish prize-giving ceremony at which the main speaker shook...

Get a strong grip on your tax bill.
February 5, 2004... Last month was unnecessarily stressful for many consultants in private practice. Ann Copsey passes on some tips to show what you can do to stop the tax blues hitting next January Return to reality is always a bit of a jolt to the system. No...

Wannabe a primary care consultant?(Brief Article)
February 5, 2004... hile most of us are outlandishly busy, there are clearly some GPs with too much time on their hands. Who else but the tragically under-employed would think of re-badging us as 'primary care consultants'? Yet this is an idea I keep reading...

Non-compliance is like a nasty bug.
February 5, 2004... Have you ever gone out of your way to prescribe a chosen drug for a patient, only to have the treatment fail due to non-compliance? Annoying, isn't it, when people can't stick to instructions? And I should know. I recently spent a short time...

Locum Lifeline.
February 5, 2004... I suspect that many doctors, especially senior hospital doctors, long to be freed from administrative burden, and believe that as a locum this will happen. While locums are spared much of the management of trust affairs, there are a number of...

Mentally ill patients face 'over four-hour' wait in A&E.(accident and emergency)(Brief Article)
February 5, 2004... A STUDY of mentally ill emergency patients at a Surrey hospital found that almost half waited in A&E for longer than four hours. The study, by consultant liaison psychiatrist Dr Jim Bolton, found 44 per cent of patients referred to psychiatric...

Pay or plead for kidney donors?
February 5, 2004... Doctors remain sceptical that the Human Tissue Bill or the national service framework for renal services published last month will do enough to tackle the shortage in kidneys available for donation. Many are considering more radical solutions,...

The long-term consequences of patient choice.
February 5, 2004... BMA chairman Mr James Johnson addresses the Government's plans for more patient choice and asks if there is enough detail for them to work In his foreword to the patient choice report, Building On The Best, Health Secretary John Reid says...

New bill confuses retention of tissue.
February 5, 2004... The Human Tissue Bill was conceived to prevent the possibility of another scandal like that at Alder Hey, but some professional commentators fear that, as it stands, it will cripple necessary research. Janis Smy reports It is just three...

THE; LOCUM; PAGE.
February 5, 2004... The short supply of locums is forcing trusts to pay more, says Francesca Robinson The expense of employing locum doctors puts enormous pressure on NHS trust budgets, but Government attempts to keep a lid on these costs appear to be...

CONTRACT CLINIC.
February 5, 2004... Dr Paul Miller, chairman of the BMA's Central Consultants and Specialists Committee, answers your questions on the new consultant contract. Send your questions to hospital.doctor@rbi.co.uk Q I currently hold mental health officer (MHO)...

Guidance on eating disorders welcomed.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2004... Psychiatrists have welcomed guidelines on managing eating disorders. The National Institute of Clinical Excellence says young women with low body mass index and patients with weight concerns who are not overweight should be screened. Also...

A&E departments report problems contacting mental health staff.(Accident and Emergency)(Brief Article)
February 5, 2004... MANY A&E departments have difficulty getting hold of mental health staff to treat psychiatric patients who visit emergency services, a new report has said. The report, by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the British Association for...

EU to consider lower thresholds for breast cancer screening.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2004... THE European Union will consider changing its policy on recommended thresholds for breast cancer screening once current trials have finished, an MEP has suggested. Karin Jons, a member of the European Parliament for Germany, said: 'Screening...

Weekly taxane may cut breast cancer mortality.
February 5, 2004... Weekly dosing with a taxane benefits some women with metastatic breast cancer, early evidence suggests. The Anglo-Celtic IV trial, endorsed by the National Cancer Research Network, has so far recruited 204 out of the 600 patients needed to...

Cost fears over trials directive.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2004... There are growing fears new European legislation could vastly increase the cost of clinical research and put an end to many academic trials. Dr Andrew Wardley, a consultant medical oncologist at the Christie Hospital in Manchester, is the...

Cancer on rise in Scots children.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2004... MORE children in Scotland are developing cancer but increasing numbers are surviving the disease, according to the Scottish Executive. Figures show that between 1975 and 1999, childhood cancer incidence rose from 108 to 132 per million children...

Paperwork rise due to 'misread' EU law.(Royal College of Pathologists)(Brief Article)
February 5, 2004... British pathology services may face more bureaucracy due to a Government body's misinterpretation of a European Union (EU) directive. The interpretation differs to that made across the rest of Europe, according to the Royal College of...

Health chiefs admit their ignorance of suspensions.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2004... HEALTH chiefs have admitted they were ignorant of the scale of NHS suspensions prior to a National Audit Office (NAO) report last November. NHS chief executive Nigel Crisp said before the NAO report was published, he did not know 1,000 clinical...

SpR's bed of office chairs.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2004... A sleeping bag and some office chairs was as close as SpR Dr Yeli Hine came to a bed while on full-shift nights. The doctor, who worked in the cardiac intensive care unit at St George's Hospital in south London, worked 13-hour shifts for seven...

Pathologists' role put under review.(Royal College of Pathologists)(Brief Article)
February 5, 2004... The role of medical graduates and consultants in pathology is under investigation. Definitions of a modern pathologist have been discussed at the Royal College of Pathologists, given the changes facing the specialty. Dr Marilyn Pocock, chairman...

'Top-up fees will mean more private practice'.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2004... Top-up fees will encourage doctors to do more private practice, according to the BMA. Dr Jo Hilborne, deputy chairman of the BMA's Junior Doctors Committee, said a drive towards private practice would be an 'unintended consequence' of the fees....

BMA needs to be more open on compensation.(British Medical Association)(Brief Article)
February 5, 2004... Hospital Doctor Comment It has been one resignation after another in the headlines over the past two weeks. Mr Nizam Mamode, deputy chairman of the BMA's consultants committee, is seeking to buck this trend despite mounting pressure on him...

. . . but current leaders are refusing to claim.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2004... CASE STUDY Current consultant leaders have claimed no compensation from the BMA in the last year. Of the three leaders of the BMA's seniors committee, only chairman Dr Paul Miller has made a 'small claim' for honoraria payments. Committee...

BMA compensates leaders for missed private practice clinics.
February 5, 2004... by Hospital Doctor reporters THE BMA is compensating senior members who miss private practice clinics in order to carry out work for the union. Individual committee members are receiving sums which, in some cases, run into tens of...

DoH unable to confirm; completed job plan data.(Department of Health)(Brief Article)
February 5, 2004... THE Department of Health has said it cannot confirm how many doctors have completed job plans under the new consultant contract even though the original deadline has now passed. Consultants had been asked to express an interest in whether they...

Doctors do make errors ...(Letter to the Editor)
February 5, 2004... Sir, I hope your editorial comment 'Jailing doctors for their errors is not the answer' (4 December, page 16) stimulates a debate beyond the confines of the medical profession - hopefully among lawyers, politicians and journalists. In 50 years'...

Online appraisal scheme launched.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2004... AN ONLINE appraisal service for consultants has been launched by the Department of Health (DoH). The 'appraisal toolkit' is aimed at supporting consultants in the new appraisal process, and is modelled on a GP version launched a year ago. More...

Using drastic weight loss solutions to tackle obesity.(medicare)
February 12, 2004... This month's dilemma You are a GP. A 45-year-old man comes to see you during morning surgery. He has a BMI of 41, yet repeated pleas to reduce calorie intake by you, and several prescriptions of exercise over the past three years, have not...

Juniors left in debt by 'illegal pay re-banding'.(debt management)
February 12, 2004... JUNIOR doctors claim they are being left in debt and forced to postpone exams because of the illegal pay re-banding of their posts. Others say they have only managed to push their salaries back up to original levels after staging sit-ins in...

Sort debt and get back in the black.(debts keep troubling medical students)
February 12, 2004... Debt worries more than just medical students - many hospital doctors are in the red as well. Indoo Gordon suggests strategies for getting back into the black The plight of medical students, already graduating with average debts in excess...

CONTRACT CLINIC.( services of helath care industry)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Stephen Campion, chief executive of the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA), answers your questions on the new consultant contract. Send your questions to hospital.doctor@rbi.co.uk Q Is it true that if I decide to stay...

Who knows what we're paying for.(analysis)
February 12, 2004... Aren't itemised bills fantastic? Once when checking out of a hotel, I noticed that my account had wrongly been billed for the exotic movie Swedish Lust Vixens. Outraged, I demanded to see the manager and, after a noisy argument, I was able to...

Proper training is a matter of time.(comments)
February 12, 2004... n 26 January, Australia Day - when Australians celebrate the arrival of the 'First Fleet' of convicts - I spent the evening at a barbie being subjected to a 'background' programme called Great Aussie Victories. This amounted to 24 hours of...

UK is failing hepatitis C patients.( care and treatment of health care industry)
February 12, 2004... NICE guidance issued last week says the newer hepatitis treatments should be offered to all suitable adults with moderate to severe chronic hepatitis C. Prof Graham Foster explains why this still will not go far enough to help tackle the hidden...

ANAESTHESIA.(services)
February 12, 2004... Janis Smy reports on the future challenges and overcoming the problems of the past for doctors working in the specialty 'There is nothing more smooth-running than a problem-free anaesthetic. But there's nothing more dramatic than one going...

How the BMA rules on council members' compensation claims.( British Medical Association)
February 12, 2004... The BMA's compensation committee has been branded secretive - a claim the organisation fervently denies - but it has used hundreds of thousands of pounds of members' money to reimburse council members for BMA work. This includes compensating...

Put an end to pay awards.
February 12, 2004... Clinical excellence awards are just another form of performance related pay, and this can only spell trouble, warns Dr Jacky Davis iscretionary points, clinical excellence awards; call them what you will, they amount to the same thing -...

Senior members justify their compensation claims.(health care industry)
February 12, 2004... Over the past two years, the BMA has splashed out more than [pounds sterling]600,000 on reimbursing its leaders through honoraria and for loss of private practice earnings. Julie Griffiths speaks to doctors about what they have claimed ...

BMA returns fire over allegations.(British medical association)(Interview)
February 12, 2004... Mr Nizam Mamode accused the BMA of being an institutuinally racist gentleman's club. Jeremy Strachan, secretary of the organisation and charged with its management, rebuts the charges QDo you believe the BMA is a gentleman's club, or a 19th...

Court upholds right of suspended doctor to remain on Irish register.( cases)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... A doctor suspended by the GMC has won his battle to remain on the Irish register. Consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Sebastian Borges was struck off the UK register in October 2000 after two patients made accusations of sexually...

SSRIs 'are safe for under-18s'.(medicare)
February 12, 2004... US RESEARCHERS are advising psychiatrists that use of SSRIs in depressed young people is safe - contrary to UK advice. In a preliminary report, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology concluded there was only weak evidence to link SSRIs...

Breast cancer threats halt another HRT trial.(medicare)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... ANOTHER HRT trial has been stopped early after preliminary results showed unacceptably high risks of breast cancer recurrence. The Swedish HABITS study, involving 345 women with a history of breast cancer, was stopped after two rather than five...

Big 30-year drop in cancer deaths.(medicare news)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... THE number of people in the UK dying from cancer has fallen significantly over the past 30 years, according to charity figures. Cancer Research UK says the death rate from all cancers, except non-melanoma skin cancer, dropped by 12 per cent...

Whistle-blowing factor ruled out in unfair dismissal case.(medical case involving Ian Perkin and St George's Healthcare NHS Trust in South London )(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... A FORMER hospital finance director has won his unfair dismissal case but failed to prove that he was sacked for whistle-blowing. St George's Healthcare NHS Trust in South London sacked Ian Perkin in late 2002, allegedly because of his...

Orlistat and exercise cuts diabetes risk.(medicare)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... A study has shown that taking an anti-obesity drug alongside diet and exercise can reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by more than a third. Researchers compared orlistat with placebo in 3,305 obese patients with normal or impaired...

Calls for action on obesity - not just reports.(comments)
February 12, 2004... WE need action not more reports, the National Obesity Forum says, after the Govern- ment announced it is launching a public consultation on tackling obesity. Health secretary John Reid said the 'wide-ranging debate' on obesity, smoking and STIs...

Trust praised for organ retention openness.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... THE Royal Liverpool Children's NHS Trust was praised for its 'honest and open' approach to organ retention at a national conference held last week. In 1999, the trust's Alder Hey Children's Hospital was at the centre of the organ retention...

Obesity linked to prostate cancer.(analysis)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Obese men are more likely to get aggressive forms of prostate cancer and suffer relapses after surgery than other men, say researchers. They suggest that obese men may reduce their risk of disease by losing weight. One study, involving 3,162...

Patient died due to 'poor disclosure'.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... POOR communications be-tween nurses and a junior doctor in a Plymouth hospital contributed to a patient's death, a coroner has said. Susan Smith died after SHO Dr Olatokunbo Olusoji Wilde failed to spot that she was suffering an internal...

Cash bonus for hitting waits targets attacked.(medical standards)
February 12, 2004... A HALF million pound performance bonus being offered as a 'carrot' to hospitals meeting their NHS targets on waiting times has been criticised by leading health care figures. Some have claimed the bonus will further increase the divide between...

BUPA queries NHS private cost claim.(British United Provident Association )(National Health Service )(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... BUPA has queried Govern- ment figures showing large disparities between the costs of common procedures in the NHS and private sector. The Department of Health figures showed the average cost of a coronary bypass was [pounds sterling]12,060 in...

Review body expects to be late setting pay.(salaries and wages)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... The review body that sets doctors' pay says it does not expect to be in a position to make its recommendations for 2004 within the next month. This is despite the fact that any rises should come into force on 1 April. The Doctors and Dentists...

Warning of trust job plan bullying.(service analysis of doctors)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Consultants have been warned that some trusts could try to bully doctors into job plans that do not pay them fully for all the work they do. The warning comes from seniors' leaders, who claim there could be 'skirmishes ahead' as the new...

Awards committee gives doctors clear guidance.(Letter to the Editor)
February 12, 2004... Sir, The Advisory Committee on Clinical Excellence Awards (ACCEA) was set up to implement the new consultant awards scheme agreed as part of the consultant contract. We are puzzled by your report that some members of the BMA's consultants...

Comments on BMA are a grave worry.(Letter to the Editor)
February 12, 2004... Sir, I write to respond to your front-page exclusive BMA is racist gentlemen's club, claims one of its own (22 January). I was really saddened by the comments made by Mr Nizam Mamode, deputy chairman of the consultants committee, as he has...

Job plan shows DoH in the clouds.(Letter to the Editor)
February 12, 2004... Sir, I read with interest the proposed job plan for an orthopaedic consultant in your article on the contract (15 January, page 8). I do not know who at the Department of Health wrote this, but it was obviously not an orthopaedic surgeon who...

'Fixed price' care must not compromise choice.(Department of Health)
February 12, 2004... The Government's new approach to funding hospitals has enormous implications for the location and size of health care delivery. The 'payment by results' system will see all public and private hospitals being paid a fixed price for all...

NCCG negotiators must get contract right first time.
February 12, 2004... Negotiations are due to begin soon for a new contract for non-consultant career grade doctors. Can their leaders deliver? Julie Griffiths reports For too long, non-consultant career grade doctors have been treated as the second-class...

Juniors left in debt by 'illegal pay re-banding'.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... JUNIOR doctors claim they are being left in debt and forced to postpone exams because of the illegal pay re-banding of their posts. Others say they have only managed to push their salaries back up to original levels after staging sit-ins in...

Sort debt and get back in the black.
February 12, 2004... Debt worries more than just medical students - many hospital doctors are in the red as well. Indoo Gordon suggests strategies for getting back into the black The plight of medical students, already graduating with average debts in excess...

Who knows what we're paying for.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Aren't itemised bills fantastic? Once when checking out of a hotel, I noticed that my account had wrongly been billed for the exotic movie Swedish Lust Vixens. Outraged, I demanded to see the manager and, after a noisy argument, I was able to...

How the BMA rules on council members' compensation claims.(British Medical Association under scrutiny)
February 12, 2004... The BMA's compensation committee has been branded secretive - a claim the organisation fervently denies - but it has used hundreds of thousands of pounds of members' money to reimburse council members for BMA work. This includes compensating...

Put an end to pay awards.
February 12, 2004... Clinical excellence awards are just another form of performance related pay, and this can only spell trouble, warns Dr Jacky Davis iscretionary points, clinical excellence awards; call them what you will, they amount to the same thing -...

Dead right or dead wrong?
February 19, 2004... Vivisection in the name of scientific advancement is a controversial issue. George Winter asks how far the medical establishment has come in dealing with it and whether doctors are as free thinking as they believe In 1543 Vesalius, in his...

LEGAL CLINIC.
February 19, 2004... Increasingly, doctors are finding themselves facing legal action after medical mistakes. To make matters worse, changing interpretation of the law means it is not always clear where doctors stand. Dr Frances Szekely from the Medical Defence...

BOOKREVIEWS.(Book Review)
February 19, 2004... Essential Guide to Acute Care Nicola Cooper & Paul Cramp Price: [pounds sterling]19.95 Pages: 217, softback BMJ Books, London Despite a rather uninspiring cover, this compact little text delivers a most refreshing and informative account of...

SpR who wants ; best for juniors.(Simon Eccles)
February 19, 2004... He's branded his colleagues muppets and already faced a motion of no confidence. So can Mr Simon Eccles, chairman of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee, win trainees over. Melanie Newman met him Mr Simon Eccles is a natty dresser, an...

Integrated approach needed for best in-patient management.
February 19, 2004... The emphasis on optimal management of common chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes has prolonged survival and improved quality of life for millions of people. But what happens when a patient is admitted to hospital for an unrelated...

Take a lead from cancer services.
February 19, 2004... Dr Ian Kunkler believes the transformation of cancer services should be a cue for doctors to take leadership of the NHS is time for a radical rethink of the way the NHS is led. Key to the problem is that the NHS has no clear leader....

CONTRACT CLINIC.(Brief Article)
February 19, 2004... Dr Paul Miller, chairman of the BMA's seniors committee, answers your questions on the new consultant contract. E-mail your questions to hospital.doctor@rbi.co.uk Q I have been a maximum part-time consultant since 1979. I have accepted...

Is incorporation right for you?
February 19, 2004... There is a lot of chat among consultants about forming chambers or companies. A group of consultants who work together as a chamber can benefit by pooling their skills, or they can achieve the same advantages as a company with some additional...

Tuition fees hit medics worst.
February 19, 2004... Twenty-three years ago, I marched at the head of a long column of students, veiled and in black. Behind me was a coffin on the shoulders of six pall bearers. We were protesting about the proposal to take away our grants. How much worse is the...

Induction plan for foreign recruits.(Department of Health)(Brief Article)
February 19, 2004... doctors from overseas who come to the UK to practise medicine could soon benefit from organised clinical attachments to help them acclimatize to the NHS, thanks to a Department of Health (DoH) working group. The Equality and Diversity in the...

Fighting fire with . . . microbiology.
February 19, 2004... 'All the hospital's a stage, And all the doctors and nurses, merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one doctor in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first the medical student, Mewling and puking in...

THE I.T. PAGE.
February 19, 2004... Doctors are being encouraged to improve their computing skills by obtaining the European Computer Driving Licence. The NHS Information Authority explains how it works QWhat is THE European Computer Driving licence? The European...

'Assistants' to ease workload.(Birmingham medical school)
February 19, 2004... Birmingham medical school is planning to create a new breed of 'doctor associates' who will treat patients after two years' postgraduate training. The associates will be trained as generalist physicians and assist in A&E and hospitals at night,...

Is this the consultant of the future?(United Kingdom. National Health Service)
February 19, 2004... A shorter training programme, no on call, shift work and a flexible job plan? This may well be the way consultants - and they are more likely to be female - will be working in the next five years or the NHS will face disaster. Janis Smy...

NHS wanted foundation hospitals, says Blair.(National Health Service)(Tony Blair)(Brief Article)
February 19, 2004... Tony Blair has told senior MPs he does not understand the fuss about foundation hospitals, claiming the idea came from NHS managers, not Downing Street. He came under pressure over the policy from Commons Health Committee chairman David...

Call to centralise surgical units in larger hospitals.(Senate of Surgery)(Brief Article)
February 19, 2004... Surgical facilities in the UK need to be centralised in larger hospitals to prevent an 'inevitable and rapid decline' in the quality of treatment available, according to the Senate of Surgery. The senate, which represents the four surgical...

GMS could result in flood ; of new epilepsy referrals.(General Medical Services)(Brief Article)
February 19, 2004... NEUROLOGISTS may face a 'tidal wave' of referrals of patients with epilepsy when the new GMS contract comes into effect, specialists have warned. Dr John Paul Leach, consultant neurologist at Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, said:...

Surgeon under investigation flees UK.(Giulio Gherardini)(Brief Article)
February 19, 2004... An Italian plastic surgeon, under investigation by the GMC after an undisclosed number of complaints, has left the UK. Mr Giulio Gherardini, assistant professor at the University of Rome's department of plastic surgery, had been working at the...