Doctor articles from May 2004

Doctor archives from May 2004

Call to separate rural from urban practice.
May 6, 2004... Simon Ebbett Rural general practice must be recognised as a separate specialty to its urban equivalent, say researchers. The authors of a new study say countryside GPs have a broader range of skills than city-based doctors, and are highly...

'Scrap practice lists; and give patients; access to any GP'.(general practitioner)
May 6, 2004... Should patients be registered with the NHS instead of with one GP practice? Rachel Solotti reports GPs AND managers want a debate on whether patients should register with the NHS, rather than with individual practices, so they can visit...

GPs demand action over; allocations 'dog's breakfast'.(general practitoner)(Brief Article)
May 6, 2004... Christina Golding GPs ARE calling for clarification on patient registration, saying it has become 'a dog's breakfast' under the new contract and Government initiatives. LMCs have submitted motions to this year's annual conference calling...

UK vaccine programmes in jeopardy.(United Kingdom)
May 6, 2004... Steve Ford MPs say the Department of Health's vaccine purchasing policy is endangering UK immunisation programmes. A report from the Commons' Public Account Committee criticised the Government for relying on only ten companies for 16...

Contract fails on health inequalities, says GPC.(General Practitioners Council)
May 6, 2004... Cathy Comerford The new contract's global sum has failed to address health inequalities, admit GP negotiators. GPC leaders have responded to Government publicity about health inequalities by blaming ministers for refusing to invest enough money...

New quality measures urged.(Brief Article)
May 6, 2004... Simon Ebbett The Government should revamp its system of judging quality, as most GPs believe the current method is largely useless, a study says. The study of the 20 markers the Government uses to judge primary care performance has found...

Battle lines drawn over PCTs' closed lists threats.(primary care trust)
May 6, 2004... Cathy Comerford GPs ARE facing the first test case under the new GMS contract, as doctors' leaders and PCTs face off over closed lists. The GPC is backing GPs against several PCTs, one of which is threatening to find practices turning...

Clamour to publish; GPs' quality scores.
May 6, 2004... Rachel Solotti A Government contract negotiator has joined calls to publish GPs' quality scores under the new GMS contract. Chris Town, an NHS Confederation negotiator, told Doctor PCOs should be able to publish practices' final quality...

Hospitals wipe out GPs' scrips savings.(general practitoner)
May 6, 2004... [pounds sterling]31m underspend diverted to cover hospital budget blow-outs Doctor reporters GPs' prescribing savings are being wiped out as hospitals take the money to pay for chasing Government targets. GPs in England are heading...

Scots LMCs deliver fresh; blow to Carr-Hill formula.(Scotland, local medical centers)(Brief Article)
May 6, 2004... GPs in Scotland have reignited the controversy over the Carr-Hill formula. At the LMCs conference in Glasgow last week, GPs passed a vote of no confidence in the formula and demanded a 'fair' allocation system to ensure most practices were...

Tartan MPIG rescues GPs; in Scottish rural practices; rura.(general practioner)
May 13, 2004... Rachel Solotti GPs IN rural Scotland have finally got some assurances about their future after the Scottish GPC negotiated a special MPIG to account for their small list sizes and remoteness. The practices had been left in limbo after the...

Private firms poised to run GP surgeries.(general practice)
May 13, 2004... Government courts firms to run services in problem areas Christina Golding Private health comp-anies are poised to take on the running of GP surgeries with the backing of the Government and PCOs. The Government is courting private...

Plan for patients to report adverse drug reactions directly.
May 13, 2004... Cathy Comerford A review of the yellow card scheme for reporting adverse drug reactions will introduce direct patient reporting. The Medicines Healthcare and products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is to pilot different methods of reporting,...

'Give GPs thinking time'.(general practitioner)(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... Cathy Comerford PCOs MUST give GPs time to learn and 'time to think', the GMC has ordered. A leaflet published this week tells PCOs and managers that they must ensure all doctors have opportunities to develop and learn. The guidance aims...

DoH under fire on premises cash.(Department of Health)
May 13, 2004... Cathy Comerford GP leaders are demanding the Department of Health explains why it has failed to deliver promised amounts of money for premises under the new contract. The GPC is in talks with the department, as the matter of premises...

. . . as MP claims; PCT could fail to; deliver contract.(Member of Parliamet Michael Spicer, primary care trust)(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... The premises crisis has hit boiling point in south Worcestershire, with an MP claiming a PCT will be unable to honour the new contract. Eight practices in the area have had their premises development plans halted by uncertainty over funding....

PMS GPs in [pounds sterling]17k pay lead as profits rise 9%.(general practitioner)(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... GPs' profits rose by 9.3 per cent on average last year, boosting hopes about practices' potential to reap better rewards under the new contract. All GPs earned an average before-tax profit of [pounds sterling]86,896, including non-NHS income,...

Helping carers get support will; cut GP workload, say charities.(general practitioners)
May 13, 2004... Christina Golding GPs COULD see fewer return visits from some patients if they can identify them as carers and offer information about where they can get support, according to charities. Organisations providing support to carers see GP...

Over-the-counter statins spark quality pay fears.(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... Christina Golding GPs could find it harder to obtain quality points for cholesterol monitoring following a Government agreement to allow statins to be sold over the counter. Health Secretary John Reid is expected to announce the change...

Schizophrenia raises diabetes risk.
May 13, 2004... Lisa Hitchen SCHizophrenia is an independent risk factor for diabetes, say new guidelines, and GPs should ensure such patients are screened. A consensus group of psychiatrists, diabetologists and pharmacologists also says GPs should...

GPC tries to allay; pension pay fears.(General Practitioners Council)(Brief Article)
May 20, 2004... Christina Golding THE GPC has blamed Government staff changes for negotiation delays over superannuation payments. GPC chairman Dr John Chisholm said that negotiations with the Department of Health had been 'slowed up' because of...

Carr-Hill admits he doubted the data used to calculate his controversial formula.(Roy Carr-Hill )(Brief Article)
May 20, 2004... Prof Roy Carr-Hill has cast doubt on the reliability of the information he used to create his funding formula. He has also questioned whether new data will be ready for the review of the formula planned to begin this autumn. The architect of...

GPs brand OTC simvastatin 'dangerous'.(general practitioner, over the counter )
May 20, 2004... Simon Ebbett GP leaders have attacked the move to make simvastatin available over the counter as unsafe and unfair. As Doctor predicted last week, the Government has now formally announced that people at low to moderate risk of heart...

GMC backs down on plan to censure; without a hearing.(General Medical Council)
May 20, 2004... Cathy Comerford THE GMC has had to back down from plans to use revalidation to place warnings on doctors' records if the council has doubts about their performance. Doctors on the council were taken by surprise when they found the plan...

I still don't know why so many GPs lost out.(general practitioners, Roy Carr-Hill, Carr-Hill formula )
May 20, 2004... GP leaders and the Government are due to start reviewing the Carr-Hill formula this autumn. Prof Roy Carr-Hill talks to Christina Golding about how and why it should be improved So what's the news about you being involved in the review of...

GMC 'must rescue revalidation'.(General Medical Council)
May 20, 2004... Cathy Comerford Revalidation could be scuppered by lack of time and resources if the GMC does not take a lead, a senior GP academic has warned. GMC member and GP Prof Mike Pringle said last week that time was running out for the scheme's...

NICE rules out Z-drugs to start insomnia treatment.(National Institute for Clinical Excellence, Imidazopyridines)
May 20, 2004... Simon Ebbett and Lisa Hitchen GPs MUST prescribe the cheapest hypnotics if non- pharmacological measures fail to work for insomnia, NICE has ordered. In new guidance, it says doctors should try non-drug solutions first, but if hypnotics...

Contract build-up wipes GP savings in one month.(general practitioners' prescription pricing)
May 20, 2004... Simon Meek GPs have wiped out a forecast [pounds sterling]31m drug budget saving with a massive rise in prescribing in the weeks running up to the new GMS contract launch. Since November, GPs in England had been on track for an underspend,...

Registrar posts axed in wake of [pounds sterling]100m cut.
May 20, 2004... GP leaders fear move will worsen profession's workforce crisis Rachel Solotti THE GP workforce crisis is set to worsen as deaneries reduce the number of registrar posts this year in response to Government funding cuts. England's 27...

Minor injuries cash crisis.(Brief Article)
May 27, 2004... Christina Golding GPs across the country are reporting that a lack of funding for minor injuries is pushing services to crisis point. Many who have given a three-month notice period to cease providing the service for free have warned PCTs...

GPs must take action to ensure they influence NPfIT agenda.(General Practitioners, National Programme for Information Technology)
May 27, 2004... From concerns about confidentiality to laments about losing favoured systems and practice data, the National Programme for IT is a hotbed of controversy. Dr Trefor Roscoe sorts the facts from the fiction The National Programme for...

Three new GPC members elected in regional ballot.(General People's Congress)
May 27, 2004... THE GPC has elected three new members through its regional elections while another 12 existing members have been re-elected. Dr Simon Poole has been elected to represent Cam-bridgeshire and Bedfordshire, replacing Dr Roger Chapman who held the...

EU cracks down on drug safety in children.
May 27, 2004... laws coming in this year mean drug companies will have to prove their medicines are effective and safe in children before they obtain licences. European legislation will require pharmaceutical companies to carry out research to show safety and...

GPs pay as PCTs exploit enhanced services loophole.(General Practitioner, Primary Care Trust)(Brief Article)
May 27, 2004... Cathy Comerford GPs IN south Worcestershire still doing services for free because PCTs are adding non-general practice work to calculations to reach their minimum expenditure floor for enhanced services. After Doctor last month highlighted...

GPs get two new tools to manage BP.(General Practitioner, Blood Pressure)(Brief Article)
May 27, 2004... Simon Ebbett GPs have been provided with two new tools to help manage hypertension - a condition res-ponsible for more than a fifth of the new contract's clinical quality points. The Hypertension Action Group (HAG) has published a...

Check June pay for errors.(auditing)
May 27, 2004... Christina Golding GPs HAVE been told to double check their global sum equivalent figures for June because of mistakes on a Government spreadsheet issued to PCTs. Trusts have been told to recalculate global sums after a last-minute...

GPs win premises funding; battle but the fight goes on.(General Practitioner)(Brief Article)
May 27, 2004... Cathy Comerford GPs WHO have won a high-profile battle for premises funding are warning of a national crisis over cash for building projects. Doctors' leaders say the victory has come at the cost of other needy areas due to a lack of...

Hutton U-turn on GP training cuts 'too late'.(General Practitioner)(Brief Article)
May 27, 2004... Rachel Solotti The Government has revoked a decision to cut its GP training budget - but the U-turn may be too late for some deaneries which have already turned away prospective GPs. Doctor last week exclusively revealed that the...

NICE 'not in real world'; over scans, say doctors.(National Institute for Clinical Excellence)(Brief Article)
May 27, 2004... Draft NICE guidelines on osteoporosis do not account for severe delays in bone density scanning, warn GPs. A NICE consultation, which closes today, says women aged under 75 should not be treated with bisphosphonates after a fracture until...

Advance directives and living wills - what you need to know.
May 27, 2004... What are advance directives and living wills? An advance directive allows individuals to state their personal preferences regarding their future medical care in advance, should there come a point where they are no longer able to do so. This...

Biometric data is a perm-anent solution to my patient problem.
May 27, 2004... I am delighted that Home Secretary David Blunkett has decided to introduce identity cards with biometric data on them. These will be tremendously useful in preventing unauthorised use of the NHS, including visits to GP surgeries. We are...

Bloody Hill - it's war!(resource allocation)
May 27, 2004... With just one week to go, it is all getting rather out of hand in the world of would-be Carr-Hillionaires. Last week's dramatic Hill-formula adjustment lit a fuse which has exploded into direct and dramatic action. For example, the Scottish...

EU cracks down on drug safety in children.(European Union)
May 27, 2004... laws coming in this year mean drug companies will have to prove their medicines are effective and safe in children before they obtain licences. European legislation will require pharmaceutical companies to carry out research to show safety and...

Exploring options for treating atopic eczema in children.(Brief Article)
May 27, 2004... Managing atopic eczema * Educate patients or their parents on the use of topical treatments, with details of application and quantities. Back this up with written information and practical advice * Advise to avoid: m Anything that is known...

GMC wants High Court appeals kept 'in house'.(General Medical Council )(Brief Article)
May 27, 2004... The GMC is to push for the ability to refer its own decisions to the High Court rather than face outside interference. The council says it wants to be able to appeal to the High Court against disciplinary panel decisions which it thinks are...

GP suicide coroner calls for more support for doctors.(General Practitioner )(Brief Article)
May 27, 2004... A coroner has said the medical profession must have better systems to help doctors with depression after the suicide of a GP under stress. The inquest into the death of Bury GP Dr Dawn Harris was told that the 38-year-old doctor was a...

GPs get two new tools to manage BP.(general practitioners, blood pressure)(Brief Article)
May 27, 2004... Simon Ebbett GPs have been provided with two new tools to help manage hypertension - a condition res-ponsible for more than a fifth of the new contract's clinical quality points. The Hypertension Action Group (HAG) has published a...

GPs win premises funding; battle but the fight goes on.(general practitioners)(Brief Article)
May 27, 2004... Cathy Comerford GPs WHO have won a high-profile battle for premises funding are warning of a national crisis over cash for building projects. Doctors' leaders say the victory has come at the cost of other needy areas due to a lack of...

Growing pains.
May 27, 2004... Facts and figures Growing pains are the most common cause of recurrent limb pain in children They were first described in 1832 by Duchamp Various sources give a huge prevalence range, from four to 34 per cent The incidence peaks first...

How to ask your patients the correct questions.
May 27, 2004... In a consultation with a patient, the aim of questioning is two-fold: To gather detailed information on symptoms in order to arrive at a correct medical diagnosis - in other words, classic history taking - while at the same time avoiding an...

Hutton works his; magic again, but; why did he need to?(John Hutton on funding of general practitioners' training)(Brief Article)
May 27, 2004... There is a school of thought in business that a problem is a hidden blessing. It goes along the lines that when something goes wrong, you have a great opportunity to strengthen your reputation by showing how well you can fix it. There has been...

Imagine dumping work on MPs.(Members of Parliament)
May 27, 2004... Barely a week goes by when someone, somewhere does not finish a new study or piece of work and sets new standards and expectations that, funnily enough, usually mean GPs being asked to do more work. It is often something we would welcome with...

Jab campaigns simply 'cause public hysteria'.(vaccination)(Brief Article)
May 27, 2004... National vaccination campaigns 'encourage public hysteria' and should be avoided, doctors were told at the British National Formulary's Good Medicine For Children conference last week. Dr Fiona Godlee, head of BMJ Knowledge and executive editor...

Let's pull ourselves together and take depression seriously.
May 27, 2004... I gather that mental health is a Government priority at present. By that, I take it to mean that if you are the proud owner of good mental health, you are okay. My personal feeling is that mental health is right at the bottom of the list....

Minor injuries cash crisis.(funding )
May 27, 2004... Christina Golding GPs across the country are reporting that a lack of funding for minor injuries is pushing services to crisis point. Many who have given a three-month notice period to cease providing the service for free have warned PCTs...

Now Blair health aide joins exodus to private sector.(Brief Article)
May 27, 2004... Prime Minister Tony Blair's health policy advisor has quit Number 10 to join a private health care company alongside the former editor of the BMJ. Simon Stevens is to become president of a new European division of US firm UnitedHealth Group,...

Number's already up for patient power.
May 27, 2004... If you usually read the 'Letters to the Editor' section in this paper, you'll have noticed a thread running through the correspondence that some readers think we at Doctor portray far too bleak a picture of life in today's modern NHS. So I was...

Parking free in Canada; still a Mission possible.(Brief Article)
May 27, 2004... As I recall, parking in England is something of a problem. I left only a short while ago, so my guess is this hasn't changed - if anything, it's probably got worse. I can imagine the sight outside my old practice of hunched elderly ladies...

Patient leaflet.(Growing pains in children)(Brief Article)
May 27, 2004... Growing pains What is it? 'Growing pains' is the common name given to pains in your child's legs or arms. They are muscle pains. What does it mean? There are lots of theories for what causes growing pains -...

Set yourself up now to save time later.
May 27, 2004... When a new program arrives, most users want to start using it immediately. That's why so many programs now come with a quick-start manual to get you up and running. But this isn't necessarily the best way to utilise your computer. It will get...

Thinking BIG can help you hit the magic [pounds sterling]125K target.
May 27, 2004... Under the old Red Book, the average list size was a useful tool for analysing practice finances. Income tended to go up as list sizes rose. The average figures of about 1,900 patients per full-time equivalent GP could be used to compare a...

Why GPs must sign clause 530.(general practitioners)
May 27, 2004... There has been much concern among GPs about clause 530 in the standard contract. In one area - Shropshire - as many as 28 of the 35 practices which signed the contract disputed the clause (Doctor, 15 April, page 8). This part of the contract...