Doctor articles from March 2004

Doctor archives from March 2004

Why is it...
March 4, 2004... 'I think of ice cream at the cinema every time I give someone a stool specimen pot' Dr Simon Daily Antibiotics make so many viral illnesses better? The severely ill are grateful, and straight forward? The malingerer takes forever to sort...

How to make websites accessible to all.
March 4, 2004... GPs with websites need to consider how disabled people will use them. Guy Newell offers useful tips For the majority of people, reading a website is easy. However, for those with visual impairment, or cognitive, hearing or motor...

A final word on dictation.
March 4, 2004... continuing our series, kathie applebee brings tried and tested solutions to GPs' common organisational headaches Writing referral letters is an unwelcome chore for many GPs, and one that, in the worst cases, results in infuriating and...

Diagnosing heart failure.
March 4, 2004... The Read code used in the new GMS contract to define the disease register for left ventricular dysfunction is G58%. This is the wrong code, as it is the code for all types of heart failure and will include patients previously diagnosed with...

Contract countdown.
March 4, 2004... Each week, we ask GPs how they are preparing for the new contract. This week, we talk to Dr Ken Megson, principal in a four-person practice in Gateshead, LMC secretary and Northumberland and Tyne and Wear GPC secretary What has your...

High price of unfair dismissal.
March 4, 2004... The size of payments made to employees in employment rights cases rose on 1 February 2004. David Carter looks at the significance for GP employers Unfairly dismissing a member of staff or making an employee redundant may cost GP employers...

Quick-fix slimming aids could do more harm than good.
March 4, 2004... Weight loss is a desirable goal for many patients in our nation which is rapidly becoming obese. But the trend of quick-fix slimming aids can be highly dangerous. Dr Vince Forte investigates The perfect slimming tablet is the philosopher's...

Primed to offer dose of reality.
March 4, 2004... 'As GPs, our knowledge of the human condition is unusual - so maybe we should share it more often' Every year I do a training session for a group of new psychiatry registrars, telling them about the realities of primary care. The aim...

A gift is not a present if you get in trouble for failing to record it.
March 4, 2004... A last-minute addition to the new contract brings in stringent rules about GPs' declaration of gifts. Ros Parkin explains A new provision in the GMS contract regulations, due to come into force on 1 April, will require action from every...

Hit the right note to get top points.
March 4, 2004... Adapt this handy protocol to maximise your quality points for summarising patient notes Practices with up-to-date clinical summaries in at least 60 per cent of patients' records earn themselves 25 points under the new contract. And there...

Don't be afraid to set the fees you deserve.
March 4, 2004... As the debate about enhanced services funding continues, negotiator Dr Andrew Dearden suggests what to consider to Get the profit you want It is absolutely imperative that your profits from taking on enhanced services are not left to...

GPs denied access cash for open surgeries.
March 4, 2004... Cathy Comerford GPs WITH so-called open surgeries will not qualify for meeting the new GMS contract's 48-hour access target, says the Department of Health. Small and single-handed practitioners, many of whom run no-appointment systems, say...

Don't be snared by locums' liabilities.
March 4, 2004... Have you checked indemnity cover for your locums? If not, on top of a financial risk, you could be in breach of the new contract. Gerard Panting and Catriona Richardson explain Recent press reports about GP locums working without adequate...

ME guidance in pipeline.
March 4, 2004... NICE IS to develop clinical guidelines for the diagnosis and management of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME). NICE has also produced new guidance on COPD and announced that it is to rethink its proposals on how people...

Software will ease exception reports.
March 4, 2004... Steve Ford Confusion over how exception reporting will work should be removed by new software supporting the contract. The contract sets out nine circumstances (see box) in which GPs will not be penalised under the quality points framework....

'Too late' to save MMR.
March 4, 2004... It Is too late to redeem MMR in the eyes of the public, warn GPs. Although the Government has re-emphasised the safety of MMR and the GMC is to investigate Dr Andrew Wakefield over the ethics behind his research, some GPs doubt this will...

Even smoking in the garden does little to reduce passive risk.
March 4, 2004... Household dust and surfaces are important and hidden sources of passive smoking for young children, research reveals. Over several weeks, this exposure is equivalent to that caused by several hours of active adult smoking, the authors...

HRT risks were evident earlier.
March 4, 2004... The risks of HRT could have been revealed much earlier if better use had been made of existing evidence, say UK researchers. They argue that, had drug licensing trials included data on harms and effectiveness, women could have been spared from...

'Start obesity fight at two'.
March 4, 2004... DIABETES PREVENTION should focus on stopping children becoming overweight after they turn two, a study has found. Researchers looked at glucose tolerance and plasma insulin levels in 1,492 subjects aged 26 to 32, who had had their body mass...

GPC defends strategy.
March 4, 2004... THE GPC has defended its communications strategy after GPs accused it of being too obsessed with appeasing the Government and less worried about doctors. The GPs' comments followed the publication of the final report of the BMA's internal...

Trusts to fund only one free IVF cycle next year.(Intra-Venous Fluids)(National Institute for Clinical Excellence)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... The NHS is to fund one free IVF treatment cycle for infertile couples rather than the three recommended by NICE. NICE's new guidance on fertility treatment says women aged 23 to 39 who have been infertile for at least three years, with an...

Warning over mobile phone picture use.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... DOCTORS SHOULD not use picture mobile phones for diagnosing and managing patients' conditions, says a defence body. The Medical Defence Union is warning doctors, following an alert from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regul-atory Agency...

Home BP recordings cut drug use.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... treatment with anti- hypertensives based on blood pressure measurements made at home rather than in the surgery is cheaper and less intensive, according to researchers in Belgium. They compared the treatment outcomes of 203 patients who...

No evidence for more fluids in respiratory infections.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... Advising patients to drink extra fluids when they have a respiratory infection may not help, say UK researchers. When they searched the scientific literature, the authors were unable to find any trials providing definite evidence that giving...

Combination therapy best in RA.(rheumatoid arthritis)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... Combining two rheumatoid arthritis drugs appears to have greater benefit than either drug alone, say researchers. They recruited 686 patients with current rheumatoid arthritis and randomly allocated them to treatment with either etanercept...

Adverse events; reporting system; goes nationwide.(National Patient Safety Agency)(Primary Care Trust)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... THE NATIONAL Patient Safety Agency has launched a nationwide system for GPs and PCTs to report adverse events and near misses. As of last week, doctors can report incidents directly and anonymously to the NPSA through an electronic form...

Bid to boost GP computer safety.(General practitioners)(National Patient Safety Agency Conference)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... Cathy Comerford reports from the National Patient Safety Agency Conference Confercnexxxxxxxxxx reports GP COMPUTER systems are to get better safety features, including more appropriate hazard alerts for prescribing. The National Patient...

PMS GPs left in dark over sums.
March 4, 2004... Christina Golding PCOs ARE being 'prejudiced and unfair' to PMS contractors by failing to tell them how much they could earn under the new GMS contract, say GPs. Delegates at the first Doctor Contract Roadshow of 2004, in Enfield, north...

Health watchdogs review.(National Patient Safety Agency)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... THE GOVERNMENT is reviewing the 40 bodies which regulate UK health care. Announcing the review at the NPSA conference, Health Minister Lord Norman Warner said the aim was to 'slim down' and examine the function of these organisations in detail...

Software bugs; throw out GPs'; quality points.
March 4, 2004... Christina Golding GPs IN Wales have found numerous bugs in Government-approved contract management software which are skewing their quality aspiration points. The Welsh Assembly has given the software, manufactured by MSD Informatics, to GPs...

Contract won't win back PMS doctors.
March 4, 2004... THE NEW GMS contract will fail to entice PMS doctors back, a survey suggests. A poll by the National Association of Primary Care found that 98 per cent of PMS practices in England had no plans to return to GMS, but almost 15 per cent of GMS...

Damning verdict on PCTs.(Primary Care Trust)
March 4, 2004... Cathy Comerford A GOVERNMENT watchdog has criticised PCTs for failing to engage front-line GPs. A Commission for Health Improvement report out today summarises the commission's first 48 PCT clinical governance reviews since October 2002,...

Doctors' group seeks; radical NHS reforms.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... A GROUP of 500 doctors has launched a high-profile campaign for radically reforming the NHS. Doctors for Reform, which includes three GPs, is demanding a public debate on whether the UK should move towards a compulsory insurance-based health...

GPs call for new vote ; on 'changed' contract.(General practitioners)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... GPs IN Wales will vote on whether to take the new GMS contract to another ballot because some believe it has changed too much from what they approved last year. At the Welsh LMCs conference next week, Morgannwg LMC will propose that Welsh GPs...

Dish out the statins.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... GPs SHOULD prescribe statins to anyone with a 20 per cent risk of cardiovascular disease over ten years and to most type 2 diabetics, say new guidelines. British Hypertension Society guidance has halved the previous 40 per cent risk threshold,...

GPs to start contract; locked in pay battles.
March 4, 2004... DoH errors force practices to sign up and sort out cash later Christina Golding MOST GPs are set to start the new GMS contract locked in pay disputes with their PCOs because a Government spreadsheet is riddled with errors. The...

One more delay now could be worth the wait.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... When the contract ballot result came out last June, Doctor had a bit of fun with it on our front page. We listed many of the events that had taken place in the run-up to the vote, ending with the figure of how many GPs voted yes. Some of the...

Pharmacists enter services price war.(Physician Contracting Organization)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... Simon Meek PHARMACISTS ARE set to undercut GPs for enhanced services and PCOs are encouraging them in a bid to keep costs down. Pharmacists are pitching for work under the new GMS contract, particularly for services such as anticoagulation...

Precariously playing with the Pill.
March 4, 2004... Giving out the Pill on advance prescription is a dangerous move 'Let girls stockpile morning-after pill' ran a headline in the Daily Mail recently. The Family Planning Association wants doctors to routinely prescribe the emergency Pill to...

Short-staffed GPs' budgets slashed.
March 4, 2004... Simon Meek THOUSANDS OF practices that have suffered staff shortages are in danger of going broke under the new contract. Sheffield West PCT has already had to bail out two of its practices. Their budgets have been slashed because of...

Swollen calf.
March 4, 2004... Doctor's regular guide to the presentations and pathologies commonly seen in general practicE - written this week by Dr vivian stevens, a GPin warminster What do you do? Mr D. F. is a 25-year-old financial adviser. He has been...

Time to get tough on the sick-note brigade.
March 4, 2004... What's the sickest thing about sick notes? The ease with which the punters get them. According to recent research, many GPs run a 'sick certificate on demand' scheme. More bizarre still, there's a clamour for us docs to hand over the Med 3s to...

GP partners lose out on NHS childcare vouchers.
March 25, 2004... Christina Golding Self-employed GPs have been excluded from a Government childcare voucher scheme because of their independent status, but will get tax breaks from it next year. The Department of Health has been promoting childcare...

GPs urge referrals across; border to cut waiting lists.
March 25, 2004... Rachel Solotti GPs in Wales have demanded that the Welsh Assembly lets them refer patients across the border until waiting lists in the country are on a par with those in England. At this month's Welsh LMCs conference, GPs condemned the...

'GPs must prevent locums; losing practice quality cash'.
March 25, 2004... Rachel Solotti GPs MUST ensure locums and new staff enter data correctly to ensure their practices do not miss valuable quality points, an NHS negotiator has warned. At a recent conference in Birmingham, Dr Tony Snell, the NHS Confederation's...

GPs advised on how to withdraw antipsychotics.
March 25, 2004... Michelle Roberts GPs should gradually withdraw elderly dementia patients from two atypical antipsychotics over a two- to four-week period, experts say. The RCGP and Royal College of Psychiatrists have issued guidance to GPs in response to...

GP voice stifled by diabetes reshuffle.
March 25, 2004... Steve Ford reports from the London meeting last week GPs fear their views on diabetes could be drowned out following the demise of a key national committee. The primary care diabetes committee of Diabetes UK was recently axed in a major...

GPC review blames DoH interference; for critical delays.
March 25, 2004... Christina Golding A GPC review of how its negotiators handled the contract talks has laid much of the blame for delays that could have jeopardised the process on Department of Health tardiness and interference. The internal review, which...

DoH predicts; rush to fill; partnerships.
March 25, 2004... Rachel Solotti The Government believes changes to medical training will dramatically increase the number of young GPs who fill partnership vacancies. A leaked Department of Health document says almost eight out of ten GP trainees will...

Last-minute bids to avert services crisis.
March 25, 2004... GPs and PCOs strike deals to prevent doctors working for free Simon Meek GPs AND PCOs are hammering together eleventh-hour deals to avert a services crisis under the new GMS contract and ensure doctors get paid. GPs in several areas...

GPs banned from; PEC win apology; as trust backs off.
March 25, 2004... A PCT which banned two GPs from its executive committee has backed down, apologising to the doctors and offering a cash settlement. Sunderland Teaching PCT last week dropped allegations of breaching corporate responsibility against Dr Roger...

GPs hit by Climbe register call.
March 25, 2004... Christina Golding GPs FACE a big increase in workload and responsibility for detecting child abuse, following tough recommendations from the Victoria Climbe Inquiry The inquiry says GPs should have a duty to compile registers containing...