Hospital Doctor articles from October 2004

Hospital Doctor archives from October 2004

Can doctors safely talk about testing?
October 7, 2004... Engaging the public in the merits of animal testing may be an uphill battle, but should doctors be more vocal about its benefits? Janis Smy investigates If you value the drugs and procedures you use to save and enhance your patients'...

letters.
October 7, 2004... Our pensions are in danger Sir, Doctors working for the NHS should be extremely pessimistic about the likelihood that the BMA will be able to do anything at all to protect them from the loss of the current final-salary pension scheme...

Hospital specialists to avoid recall work.
October 7, 2004... Prescribing By Lisa Hitchen and Steve Ford lisa.hitchen@rbi.co.uk Hospital Doctors will be relying on GPs to find all the patients on rofecoxib (Vioxx), which was withdrawn last week, claimed specialists. Rofecoxib was recalled worldwide...

Call for exam structure revamp to allow ranking.
October 7, 2004... training By Melanie Newman melanie.newman@rbi.co.uk Surgeons are calling for a radical overhaul of their exam structure, allowing for national ranking of juniors, but they cannot agree how. They believe a competitive exam is needed,...

Last chance for SAS leadership.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2004... editorial comment Mr Awani Choudhary has just taken on the most challenging role in medical politics - for the second time. Last year, Mr Choudhary resigned as the chairman of the BMA's negotiating subcommittee for staff and associative...

Funding plan threat to NHS.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2004... By Melanie Newman melanie.newman@rbi.co.uk New NHS funding arrangements will spark an exodus of consultants to the private sector and cause widespread closure of NHS departments, doctors fear. Under 'payment by results', it will be no more...

GMC refers its own not guilty decision.(General Medical Council)(Brief Article)
October 7, 2004... shipman In an unprecedented move, the GMC has questioned its own professional conduct committee's 'not guilty' finding for the pathologist caught up in the Shipman affair. Retired consultant pathologist Dr David Bee was investigated over a...

Surgeons attacked over working hours.(Brief Article)
October 7, 2004... contract A group of surgeons has been threatened with disciplinary action for refusing to work longer hours than they are being paid for under the new contract. The four surgeons, at County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust,...

Testing personality.
October 14, 2004... Janis Smy asks whether personality tests should be used to help determine doctors' career paths The business world and even some sectors of the civil service swear by psychometric testing. But its use in the medical profession is not as...

letters .
October 14, 2004... Squash the nonsense Sir, I take issue with the opinion of Roy Lilley, who describes doctors' fears of distortion of clinical priorities as 'crap' (More resource needed to win numbers game, 9 September, page 16). Resorting to this kind of...

Fears over influx of EU care firms.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2004... By Melanie Newman melanie.newman@rbi.co.uk Unregulated foreign health care firms may flood the UK, threatening patient care, if controversial new European legislation comes into force. Health care providers from across the EU will be able to do...

Leaving to avoid 'vilification'.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2004... Workforce Orthopaedic surgeon Mr Peter Black believes consultants are being set up as fall guys to take the blame for the end of the NHS - so he is emigrating to New Zealand. Mr Black, a consultant at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton,...

Poor representation.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2004... BMA Women and ethnic minorities are still drastically under-represented on BMA com- mittees compared with the medical workforce. A survey by the BMA's equal opportunities committee (EOC) shows only 19 per cent of BMA committee members...

Split between colleges over training plans.(Brief Article)
October 14, 2004... Training Royal colleges are split over the idea of introducing a third year of general training as part of Modernising Med- ical Careers (MMC) reforms. As reported by Hospital Doctor last week, The Royal College of Surgeons of England is...

Reveal cost of patient choice.(Editorial)
October 14, 2004... editorial comment The Government served up more of the same during the conference season. With its seemingly unassailable lead in the polls ahead of next year's General Election, this is hardly surprising. The problem stems from the lack...

Doctors back DNR ruling for 11-month-old.(Do Not Resuscitate)
October 14, 2004... medico-legal By Lisa Hitchen lisa.hitchen@rbi.co.uk Hospital doctors have lent their support to Mr Justice Hedley's decision to overrule Charlotte Wyatt's parents' wishes to prolong their daughter's life. The decision, which was taken at...

Patients suffer as GPs seek ever more tests.
October 14, 2004... pathology By Emma Vere-Jones emma.vere.jones@rbi.co.uk Patients across the NHS are suffering delays to treatment because of an increasing workload and a deepening workforce crisis in pathology. Prof James Underwood, president of the Royal...

Testing has to be transparent.(animal testing)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
October 21, 2004... editorial comment The professor of neurosurgery at Imperial College recently called on doctors to speak out in support of animal testing.Prof Tipu Aziz said that the actions of animal rights extremists are threatening the viability of...

NHS conspiracy theorist who has credibility.(National Health Service privitisation)
October 21, 2004... Prof Allyson Pollock has powerful warnings about NHS changes. She tells Melanie Newman why they add up to a dangerous masterplan Prof Allyson Pollock has a theory on the NHS. Some would say it is a conspiracy theory: the Government is...

letters.
October 21, 2004... GMC is on a witch-hunt . . . Sir, I was appalled to read that the GMC's professional conduct committee (PCC) has decided to refer its own 'not guilty' finding in the case of Dr David Bee to the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence...

SAS doctors in danger of abandoning A&E . . .(Accident & Emergency)(out-of-hours services)(Brief Article)
October 21, 2004... workforce By Emma Vere-Jones emma.vere.jones@rbi.co.uk Government promises to increase out-of-hours GP availability may worsen the workforce crisis in A&E , doctors have warned. Patients with a 'clinical need' are now guaranteed a GP...

'Protection needed for animal testers'.
October 21, 2004... results of the animal testing survey By Will Beacham will.beacham@rbi.co.uk The actions of animal rights extremists are deterring hospital doctors from getting involved in medical research involving animals, claims exclusive new research....

Consultants still split on contract.(Brief Article)
October 21, 2004... contract Consultants are divided over whether the new contract has improved their morale or made it worse. A new BMA survey of 900 consultants shows 28 per cent of those on the new deal said their morale had improved, but this was almost...

GMC to spot check doctors.(Brief Article)
October 21, 2004... Doctors may be randomly selected for spot checks by the GMC to ensure revalidation folders are up to date. Draft guidelines on revalidation currently undergoing consultation say that in any given year, a random selection of doctors will be...

Regulators are not consistent.(Brief Article)(Editorial)
October 28, 2004... editorial comment The workings of the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) continue to mystify. The CHRE oversees health regulators, including the GMC, and provides an appeal mechanism for the public. This week, the...

Surgeons Vs surgical care practitioners.
October 28, 2004... Most doctors are aware of extending the roles of non-doctors, but is the role of the surgical care practitioner a step too far? Mr Ian McDermott believes so Not since 1745, when the surgeons broke from the barbers, has the profession of...

letters .
October 28, 2004... College helps SAS doctors Sir, I am concerned that the attitudes of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh towards staff and associate (SAS) grade doctors are being misrepresented (Colleges take ostrich's view, 30 September, page 14)....

Doctors fear anti-fraud law may breach confidentiality.(Brief Article)
October 28, 2004... fraud Doctors are worried that proposed new powers for NHS counter fraud officers may jeopardize patient confidentiality. The Counter Fraud and Security Management Service (CFSMS) is asking Parliament for the power to seize documents...

SAS contract set for end of 2005.(staff and associate specialist)(Brief Article)
October 28, 2004... contract The new contract for staff and associate specialist (SAS) doctors should be in place by the end of 2005, the new chairman of its negotiating committee has claimed. Dr Awani Choudhary said confidential discussions with the NHS...

Fear of owning up 'puts lives at risk'.(Brief Article)
October 28, 2004... working practices By Emma Vere-Jones emma.vere.jones@rbi.co.uk A culture of fear within the NHS is killing hundreds of patients each year, the Dep-uty Chief Medical Officer has said. Prof Aidan Halligan warned that a 'fog of war' within...

New trust funding could cut services.
October 28, 2004... By Judy Sands hospital.doctor@rbi.co.uk Implementation of payment by results - and not the consultant contract - will be to blame for a growing number of budgetary shortfalls and cuts to services at foundation trusts, claim economists. Last...

Surgeons shun MMC fast-track training plans.(Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland)(Modernising Medical Careers)(emergency-safe surgeons)
October 28, 2004... TRAINING By Emma Vere-Jones emma.vere.jones@rbi.co.uk The Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (ASGBI) has rejected a model of 'emergency-safe surgeons', proposed under Modernising Medical Careers (MMC). At a conference on...