Hospital Doctor articles from May 2007

Hospital Doctor archives from May 2007

'We must have public inquiry'.(Medical Training Application Service )(Brief article)
May 3, 2007... campaign launch Rob.Finch@rbi.co.uk Nine out of ten doctors support a Hospital Doctor campaign to launch a public inquiry into the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) and Modernising Medical Careers (MMC). An exclusive...

Fears of changeover chaos prompt call for more entry points.(Brief article)
May 3, 2007... Fears are mounting over the 1 August changeover for SpR and SHO posts, prompting the Royal College of Physicians of London (RCP) to call for multiple opportunities to enter specialty training programmes. In an exclusive interview with...

JDC leaders survive no confidence vote.(Junior Doctors Committee)
May 3, 2007... bma's junior doctors committee conference, london Elizabeth.Fox@rbi.co.uk The leadership of the BMA's Junior Doctors Committee (JDC) survived a major challenge at last weekend's annual conference. Delegates spent well over an hour debating...

This must never happen again.(Medical Training Application Service )(Brief article)
May 3, 2007... Hospital Doctor comment Last week, I said that there had to be a public inquiry into the immediate problems with the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) and the long-term effects of Modernising Medical Careers (MMC). Hospital...

Bionic.(targeted motor reinnervation )
May 3, 2007... Electronic body parts are moving from being crude mechanical attachments and becoming intuitive devices wired to the brain. Adam Legge explores technologies that are even restoring lost senses It might have taken over three decades but the...

Letters to the Editor.
May 3, 2007... You're certifiable if you pay the big bill Dear Editor Thank you for raising the issue of the increasing fees charged by the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB) (12 April, page 5). I recently applied for my...

Anger over cuts to training cash.
May 3, 2007... training Nina Jacobs The Government is facing criticism over [pounds sterling]136m worth of cuts to NHS training and education budgets, despite pledging to leave this funding alone. News of further budget cuts was broken by the...

BMA demands care rationing and NHS focus on core services.(British Medical Association, National Health Service)(Brief article)
May 10, 2007... Services The BMA is demanding that there be explicit rationing of NHS care as part of an 'alternative' plan for reform. The radical proposal - for the NHS to concentrate on a broad 'core' of services - is set out in a report to be debated...

Protester claims success.
May 10, 2007... BMA The BMA has been given a clear 'wake-up call' over its handling of Modernising Medical Careers (MMC), according to the instigator of a campaign to unseat the association's leadership. Dr Iain Varley, an SHO in oral surgery, launched...

Pay-outs a poor second to jobs.
May 10, 2007... Hospital Doctor comment Has the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) been 'negligent and reckless'? That is the question many junior doctors - and probably many DoH apparatchiks - will now be asking. If the answer is 'yes'...

New heights.(Caudwell Xtreme Everest )
May 10, 2007... What's the link between acclimatisation to hypoxia on Everest and patients' chances in intensive care? The curiosity of a team of clinicians who are also keen climbers might yield some answers. Paola Accalai talks to them Nearly...

Letters to the Editor.
May 10, 2007... Tough - you get what you pay for Dear Editor I was somewhat amused, but not surprised, by the report from the National Audit Office (NAO) concerning the new consultant contract, which claimed it cost too much and had not delivered...

Anger over overseas qualifications lottery.(United Kingdom. National Recognition Information Centre)
May 10, 2007... overseas doctors Rob.Finch@rbi.co.uk THE BMA has branded 'outrageous' the inconsistent policies of the organisation that decides which overseas doctors' qualifications are eligible for NHS work. The UK National Recogni-tion Information...

Doctors' dole cost 'must be made public'.
May 10, 2007... campaign Louise Hunt The economic impact of there being thousands of jobless junior doctors should be investigated as part of a public inquiry into training reforms, doctors are demanding. Of 550 respondents to a Hospital Doctor...

MTAS could face earnings claims.(Medical Training Application Service)
May 10, 2007... training Nina Jacobs Claims for loss of earnings could be filed by hundreds of doctors left without specialty training posts after the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) fiasco. Legal experts believe junior doctors who have lost...

Shock as BUPA wins ISTC deal.(Independent Sector Treatment Centre )
May 17, 2007... elective surgery Elizabeth.Fox@rbi.co.uk BUPA has been awarded a four-year contract to provide elective surgery procedures in north-west England - just weeks after announcing that its 26 hospitals are up for sale. The deal is the first of...

Boycotting MTAS could cost your job, warns BMA.
May 17, 2007... training CONSULTANTS WHO withdraw from specialty training interviews could be in breach of their employment contracts, the BMA has warned. Last week, every consultant in the UK was sent a letter urging them to boycott further...

Juniors not represented on MMC review.(Modernising Medical Careers)(Brief article)
May 17, 2007... News flash Junior doctors will not be represented on the panel of the new 'independent' review of Modernising Medical Careers (MMC). The news is likely to disturb grassroots doctors and renew calls for a Public Inquiry into MMC and the...

Juniors told to lie over hours.(Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board)
May 17, 2007... working time directive Louise Hunt Junior DOCTORS are routinely asked to lie about the hours they work so that trusts can claim they meet the Working Time Directive, a major survey has found. The National Trainee Survey of 25,000 doctors,...

Time to stand up to the bullies.
May 17, 2007... Hospital Doctor comment So it's official: large numbers of junior doctors are being bullied. The forms of bullying and sources of bullying are many and varied, but one particularly insidious form of bullying revealed this week involves...

Letters to the Editor.
May 17, 2007... No faith left in endless change Dear Editor I have sent the following letter to the ex-health minister, Lord Warner, in response to his comments reported in the Daily Telegraph, 24 April, 'NHS staff are blocking reforms, says...

Remedy in MTAS court showdown.
May 17, 2007... training Elizabeth.Fox@rbi.co.uk DOCTORS' PRESSURE group Remedy UK appeared in court this week to challenge the DoH over its handling of specialty training applications. Remedy UK's legal team argued that the current Medical...

Vulnerable brains.
May 17, 2007... Neurospecialists are beginning to understand exactly how the brain is damaged by neglect or abuse during the crucial infant years of neurodevelopment. Jo Carlowe learns more It's been a bad time for British children - a UNICEF study...

BMA must act on doctors' concerns.
May 24, 2007... Hospital Doctor comment The medical establishment has been treading on very thin ice for quite some time. Seen as increasingly out of touch over the unintended consequences of a well-intentioned set of reforms, the many and varied...

Intimidation claims dismissed by GMC.(General Medical Council)
May 24, 2007... paediatrics Rob.Finch@rbi.co.uk THE GMC has hit back at criticism that it is 'intimidating' paediatricians and putting them off doing child protection work. The accusation was made in an article published in April in the journal Pediatrics...

BMA leader ditched to stem revolt.(British Medical Association)
May 24, 2007... medical politics Elizabeth.Fox@rbi.co.uk BMA chairman Mr James Johnson was pushed out of office a week after a letter he wrote to a national newspaper lost him the support of council members and grassroots doctors. Yet Mr Johnson, who has...

Members desert BMA over MTAS.
May 24, 2007... Training Elizabeth.Fox@rbi.co.uk The BMA has lost scores of members and risks losing more after publicly opposing Remedy UK's legal challenge to the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS). In a judicial review hearing at...

Letters to the Editor.(Letter to the editor)
May 24, 2007... A lot is at stake for gambling addicts Dear Editor I was delighted to see the issue of gambling addiction raised in your newspaper (1/3 May, page 30), but was surprised to see gambling defined as 'a pastime, not a disease'. ...

Medical robotics.
May 24, 2007... How far can robots go when it comes to taking on doctors' tasks? Pial Ganguli talks to the doctors pioneering their use snapshots Robots are not so much replacing doctors as providing an interface with patients - for example, one robot...

MTAS public inquiry call wins support from medical leaders.(Medical Training Application Service )(Brief article)
May 24, 2007... training Big guns across the medical profession are endorsing a campaign for a public inquiry into the Medical Trai-ning Application Service (MTAS) and Modernising Medical Careers (MMC). People need to be held to account and lessons must...