Doctor articles from February 2005

Doctor archives from February 2005

Key target is missed.
February 1, 2005... Premises The Government has failed to meet one of its key NHS Plan primary care premises targets, according to new figures. The plan, published in July 2000, said the Government wanted to 'substantially refurbish or replace' 3,000 GP...

GPs reject cancer mortality claim.
February 1, 2005... Cancer Christina Golding GP leaders have hit back at claims from Parliament's chief efficiency watchdog that GPs are partly to blame for cancer mortality being too high in England. A Commons Public Accounts Committee report published...

Buy in or lose out, new GPs told.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Premises Doctors' leaders have warned young GPs they could regret a decision to avoid buying into practice partnerships. Dr Peter Swinyard, chairman of the GPC's practice premises subcommittee, said the increasing number of new GPs...

MMR alert; as mumps; cases soar.(Measles-mumps-rubella vaccines)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Immunisation Coventry GPs are being asked to immunise teenagers with MMR as mumps has surged in the city. Since mid-November, there have been 468 mumps cases reported, in a city that normally expects about 25 cases a year. Across the West...

CaB 'is a threat to privacy'.
February 1, 2005... Choose and Book Christina Golding The Choose and Book (CaB) system could destroy relationships between GPs and patients if confidentiality worries are not addressed, warn GP leaders. GPC chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum said that the BMA...

Beginning of the; end for the GMC.
February 1, 2005... Reid cracks down on regulation in tough response to Shipman Cathy Comerford The GMC as it is today will cease to exist after a Government review reports this year. Health Secretary John Reid last week announced a review to find ways to...

A&E hit as; GPs offload; unpaid work.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Services GPs are flexing their muscles under the new contract and refusing to do unpaid work, with A&E departments reporting floods of patients turned away from practices. A&E units are seeing increasing numbers of patients for wound...

Immediate recall for bendrofluazide batch.(Crescent Pharmaceu-ticals )(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Drug recall THE MEDICINES and Health-care Products Regulatory Agency has ordered an immediate and complete recall of a batch of bendrofluazide 2.5mg tablets. GPs and pharmacists are to try to get back from patients pills from Crescent...

Hang up 0870 rates, says DoH.(Brief Article)
February 8, 2005... Working practices Ministers are considering banning GP surgeries from using 0870 numbers. About 300 practices have signed with Network Europe Group to install the lines. Calls are charged at 6.73p per minute - more than twice the average...

Errors in global sum payments.
February 8, 2005... Contract cash Practices across Eng- land and Wales have been under- or overpaid by up to [pounds sterling]2,000 in their global sums because of a computer error. The mistake could have gone undetected had it not been picked up by a few...

GPs to be freed from incapacity benefit role.
February 8, 2005... The Government is set to scrap GPs' role in judging patients for benefits, but is again demanding they undergo training Christina Golding GPs will no longer be responsible for assessing whether a patient is eligible to receive...

Pilot had already taken off.(Brief Article)
February 8, 2005... Services It's the pilot scheme that isn't one. North London GP Dr Roy Macgregor's practice had been hailed in Parliament as a Government pilot to introduce job consultants in practices. In fact, the scheme has nothing to do with the...

GPs must screen for renal disease.(Brief Article)
February 8, 2005... Renal NSF GPs SHOULD routinely screen at-risk patients for signs of chronic kidney disease, says part two of the national service framework for renal services. The NSF says optimal management in primary care, combined with earlier...

GMC leader insists crisis is DoH spin.
February 8, 2005... Catto claims criticism is pre-Election posturing Cathy Comerford GMC president Prof Sir Graeme Catto has denied the body is in crisis, and dismissed Government criticism as hype. The council's leader said criticism of the GMC's...

Call for GPs to be trained in occupational; health issues.(Brief Article)
February 8, 2005... Training Government plans to overhaul the benefits system have again raised the issue of GP training. Last month, the Government announced plans to set up a new unit to monitor doctors' sickness certification. The Department for Work and...

Commissioning 'made pointless'.(Payment by results system)
February 8, 2005... Commissioning Craig Kenny The Government's new payment by results (PBR) system will make it pointless for GPs to get involved in practice-based commissioning, according to the NHS Alliance. A report from the body, published last week,...

List size figures disputed.
February 8, 2005... Workload GP LEADERS and health bosses have questioned research showing that some doctors' lists are five times as big as others. According to GMAP Con-sulting, the worst-off PCO area is Greater Derby, where there is one GP per 3,428...

GPs sceptical of matron referrals.
February 15, 2005... Community matrons Craig Kenny Plans to allow community matrons to make direct consultant referrals and order diagnostic tests have been greeted with scepticism by GP leaders. Guidance published by the Department of Health says...

England PCTs enjoy 9.2% funding rise.
February 15, 2005... PCT budgets England's PCTs have won an average 9.2 per cent funding increase for the next two years under Government allocations of [pounds sterling]135bn announced last week. Health Secretary John Reid said this meant trusts were now...

Technical hitches turn doctors off computer systems.(Brief Article)
February 15, 2005... NHS IT General practice IT has hit yet more problems, with Welsh GPs losing their quality points, another poll showing that doctors expect the system to fail, and Scotland considering changing systems entirely. Several Welsh practices have...

New protest over contract failures.
February 15, 2005... GP representatives demand progress on long-running problems Christina Golding GP representatives will this week demand action on a list of GMS contract grievances in the biggest attack on the profession's leadership since the...

Hypericum 'more effective' in depression.(Brief Article)
February 15, 2005... Alternative medicine A St John's Wort extract is superior to paroxetine (Seroxat) for treating moderate to severe depression, research has found. The herb extract WS 5570 is also better tolerated than the antidepressant, according to a...

Unhealthy interest.(Brief Article)
February 15, 2005... Health improvement Among the many items of blame GPs can lay at the Government's door, it appears there is another - the worried well. According to researchers, the UK public is becoming 'morbidly obsessed' with its health and the...

GMS contract review team appointments.
February 15, 2005... GMS review The Government has appointed its team to work on the GMS contract review. Chaired by Greater Peter- borough PCT chief executive and original contract negotiator Chris Town, the NHS Employers team includes GP representation from...

Concession for hospital GPs.(Brief Article)
February 15, 2005... Community hospitals The GPC has won a concession from the Government's negotiators that talks on community hospital GPs must be separated from those on other hospital grades. But it appears that the Government still will not agree to...

GPs demand progress on same old problems.
February 15, 2005... The GPC comes under fire over contract problems 'rumbling on'. But the committee has made progress for GPs working in hospitals Doctor reporters This week's first meeting of GP representatives for 2005 could easily end up being...

Information requests come from all corners.
February 22, 2005... Simon Ebbett looks at how new powers are used to check on GPs It is an eclectic blend of people using their new data-gathering powers under the Freedom of Information Act. In the words of a spokeswoman at one trust in the North-west: 'We've...

CaB password ruling; 'final straw' for GPs.(Choose and Book )(medical law)
February 22, 2005... Call to scrap Choose and Book as security creates more work Christina Golding GP representatives want Choose and Book (CaB) scrapped altogether after new government guidance puts more workload on doctors. GPC members say there will be...

GPs seek to abolish GMC.(General Medical Council )(general practitioners)(Brief Article)
February 22, 2005... Representation A CITY'S GPs have voted to get rid of the GMC, saying it has swung too far against doctors on a tide of political correctness. The vote came at an LMC meeting in Manchester last week, where doctors said the GMC had lost the...

Pensions entitlement brings hike in OOH costs.(out-of-hours)(Brief Article)
February 22, 2005... Out-of-hours The costs of out-of-hours services are set to soar this year as GPs working for co-operatives become entitled to NHS pensions. The National Association of GP Co-operatives warned last week that PCTs were under-funding co-ops...

PCT backs down in; services 'test case'.(Primary Care Trust)(Brief Article)
February 22, 2005... Budget dispute Craig Kenny A PCT which attempted to use unspent enhanced services cash to bail out hospital debts, and in so doing set up a potential test case, has backed down following pressure from GPs. Bristol South and West PCT...

Flu jab benefits 'overestimated'.(Brief Article)
February 22, 2005... Mortality RESEARCHERS ARE questioning the efficacy of national flu vaccination campaigns, claim- ing that flu-related mortality does not decline as a result. US study authors said observational studies had reported that flu vaccination...

Right to records opens door to 'crude GP league tables'.(Brief Article)
February 22, 2005... A Kent businessman is compiling details of every English practice's performance under the new contract's quality framework, using data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. John Waterman, chief executive of a quality assurance firm,...

COX2 heart risks affect whole class.(Brief Article)
February 22, 2005... Arthritis There is a class-wide increased cardiovascular risk with COX2 inhibitors, says the European drugs regulator. The European Medicines Agency also warned that data suggested risk rose with intake duration and dose. As a result, it...

Review puts; GMC survival; on knife edge.(General Medical Council )(Brief Article)
February 22, 2005... Self-regulation Health Secretary John Reid has no agenda to shut down the GMC but accepts that may happen as a result of his review, senior sources close to him have told Doctor. Mr Reid has ordered Chief Medical Officer for England Prof...