Doctor articles from May 2006

Doctor archives from May 2006

Doctors win review of private providers.
May 2, 2006... ISTCs Steve Ford PRIVATELY RUN NHS surgical centres are to face an audit on the quality of their work, after ministers bowed to pressure from doctors. Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt last week announced that the Healthcare Commission...

PCTs try to get around DES deal.
May 2, 2006... Enhanced services PCTs ARE trying to renegotiate existing deals for practice-based commissioning rather than offer the directed enhanced service agreed in the latest contract review. GP negotiators have advised GPs to stand firm in the...

GPs achieve [pounds sterling]143m saving in drugs bill.(Disease/Disorder overview)
May 2, 2006... Cardiovascular prescribing leads way to first drop in 15 years Adam Legge GPs in England have achieved the first drop in the drugs bill for at least 15 years - saving the NHS [pounds sterling]143m. Prescribing specialists have hailed...

MPs investigate GP pay increase.
May 2, 2006... Remuneration MPs are to scrutinise GP earnings as part of an investigation into the current NHS financial crisis. The Commons Health Committee has announced a major probe into NHS deficits, investigating the size of the deficits and...

Pensions will reflect 'over-performance'.
May 2, 2006... Contract GPs HAVE won a victory in the fight to get their NHS pensions uprated in line with new contract pay rises. The dynamising factor for 2003-04 is due shortly to be announced at 12.9%. This is much higher than the interim figure...

GP ranks increase but registrar numbers fall.
May 2, 2006... Recruitment NEARLY 1,000 more full-time equivalent GPs joined the NHS in England last year, latest official figures show. Between September 2004 and September 2005, the number of full-time equivalent GMS GPs rose by 940, according to...

GMS negotiators start private firm.
May 2, 2006... PMS THE two doctors' leaders who led negotiations on the new GMS contract have set up their own private health firm and won contracts to run GP practices in south London. Dr John Chisholm, chairman of the BMA GPs Committee for seven...

Warning over APMS threat to GP salaries.
May 2, 2006... Remuneration Amena Saleem Salaried GPs could see a worsening of their pay and conditions with the introduction of alternative provider medical services (APMS), GP leaders warn. Those employed to perform services commissioned through...

Government cuts free DTB subs.
May 9, 2006... Journals The axe has fallen on free access for GPs to the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB), as the Government continues its cost-cutting measures. The DoH confirmed last week that it would not be renewing its contract with the...

GPs slam 'useless' obesity guidelines.
May 9, 2006... Health improvement Adam Legge new Obesity guidelines for GPs from the DoH do nothing to further the management of the problem and ignore workload issues, say primary care obesity specialists. The guidance, including care pathways for...

PCTs 22% over budget on OOH.(primary care trusts)(out of hours)(Brief article)
May 9, 2006... Out of hours Confusion reigns among PCTs on whether out-of-hours (OOH) services should be restricted to urgent cases, according to a report by the National Audit Office. It says few OOH providers are meeting their target response times...

Children don't outgrow puppy fat, warns study.
May 9, 2006... Child obesity The idea that excess weight in children is 'puppy fat' that they will outgrow is a myth which is putting their future health at risk, according to UK research. Almost 6,000 south London children were tracked through...

GPs must find lost e-booking patients.
May 9, 2006... Over 11,000 referred patients may need to be re-examined Melanie Newman Thousands of patients who have been told by GPs to book their own appointments under Choose and Book (C&B) have become lost to the system, Doctor has learnt....

NHS to pilot e-records before roll-out.
May 9, 2006... Confidentiality GP leaders have welcomed plans to pilot the national patient care record before national roll-out, following concerns about data confidentiality and workload implications. Fears have regularly been expressed about plans...

Shipman panel calls GPs 'too defensive'.
May 9, 2006... Shipman Cathy Comerford GPs have been accused of being too defensive about Harold Shipman and the GMC of burying its head in the sand. 'The profession's [response] was just "leave us alone",' Prof Aneez Esmail, of the National Primary...

PCTs wriggle out of maternity leave deal.
May 16, 2006... Maternity pay Amena Saleem PCTs across the country are refusing to pay increases for maternity leave reimbursements, agreed under the new GMS contract. As a result, GPs are calling for the increased payments to be made compulsory....

Call for trusts to train DES data assessors.
May 16, 2006... Technology PCTs have been told to start training the assessors who will decide whether GPs will get data quality payments under the IT directed enhanced service (DES). Data quality accreditation is being funded as a DES as part of the...

Britain's CVD cost is 'highest in Europe'.
May 16, 2006... Cardiology Cardiovascular disease costs the UK economy almost [pounds sterling]30bn a year in health and non-healthcare costs - the highest in Europe, says a new survey. A UK health economic study has concluded that, in 2004, CVD cost...

GPs demand action over premises crisis.
May 16, 2006... Leaders say white paper plans will founder without investment Cathy Comerford PLANS TO shift 5% of secondary care into the community will founder unless the Government tackles a critical shortage of premises funding in general...

Guidance on pelvic floor test.
May 16, 2006... Incontinence GPs SHOULD only assess muscle contraction of the pelvic floor in women who do not benefit from pelvic floor muscle training, according to draft NICE guidance on urinary incontinence (UI). Supervised pelvic floor muscle...

Kidney workload fears 'unfounded'.
May 16, 2006... QOF Adam Legge More than 90% of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) will already be on another cardiovascular disease register, say primary care renal specialists. Concerns that the quality and outcomes framework's CKD...

RCGP against new law on dying.(Royal College of General Practitioners)(Brief article)
May 16, 2006... Legislation THE RCGP has issued a statement opposing a change in the law on assisted dying. The Bill on Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill, which is sponsored by Lord Joffe, was due to have a second reading in the House of Lords...

Triptan to go OTC.
May 23, 2006... Prescribing FOR The first time, a triptan will be available over the counter in pharmacies, UK drug regulators have announced. On Friday, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) ruled that sumatriptan (Imigran...

Dipstick tests help define CV risk.
May 23, 2006... Cardiology GPs CAN use dipstick tests for proteinuria as useful adjuncts to kidney function tests when defining cardiovascular risk, according to North American research. The authors said only 25% of patients with proteinuria had a low...

EU verdict means GPs need new rules for cross-border referrals.
May 23, 2006... Referral THE BMA has called for new guidance for GPs on referring patients for treatment abroad, following a ruling last week from European judges. In a landmark case, the European Court of Justice decided health authorities had to pay...

GPs set for huge rise in statin prescribing.
May 23, 2006... 80% of middle-aged men eligible under CVD screening plans Adam Legge GPs could be expected to prescribe a statin for almost 80% of middle-aged men, and most older women, under the new national cardiovascular screening programme,...

GPs 'betrayed' as PCT mulls private takeover.
May 23, 2006... Amena Saleem Two doctors who transformed a struggling practice are now battling with their PCT to save it from the threat of being taken over by a corporate health provider. In a case which LMCs warn is a national issue, Dr Ashley Liston...

GPs sound warning over e-records pilot.
May 30, 2006... Patient records Cathy Comerford GPs have slammed a national care record pilot for failing to test an opt-in approach which would have required patients to give consent for their records to be uploaded onto the national data spine. The...

IT problems threaten access DES payments.(directed enhanced service for choice and booking)(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Enhanced services LMCs have expressed 'grave concern' that IT failings will prevent practices retaining the aspiration payments agreed under the new directed enhanced service (DES) for choice and booking. The DES specification says...

GPs urged to step up co-proxamol switch.(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Prescribing GPs have been advised to step up efforts to switch patients from co-proxamol to alternative analgesics. The NHS National Prescrib-ing Centre (NPC) said co-proxamol prescribing went down last year but in recent months the...

Chlamydia study questions value of screening plan.(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Screening The cost-effectiveness of chlamydia screening has been questioned by the authors of a large observational study. The UK's national chlamydia screening programme began its roll-out in 2002 and now covers more than 25% of PCTs...

DoH throws down gauntlet on APMS.
May 30, 2006... Move to 'challenge the existing monopoly of independent GPs' Doctor reporters The pace of private sector involvement in primary care has accelerated, with ministers trumpeting the first in a series of Government-backed private...

NHS urged to ban alternative care.(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Alternative therapies A group of 13 eminent doctors and scientists has openly attacked moves to increase the availability of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) in the NHS. The group, which includes Nobel Prize for Medicine...

PCTs plan to slash GP income by 25%.
May 30, 2006... Remuneration Amena Saleem Radical cost-cutting measures being proposed by two PCTs could see PMS practice income slashed by 25%. South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge City PCTs are also considering trying to apply the proposals to several...

The truth about cats, dogs and eczema.(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Allergy Having pet cats at home with a newborn baby has been linked with a higher risk of eczema in the child at one year of age. Dogs, on the other hand, seem to offer protection. And two dogs proved better than one, said the authors...