The BritMeds 2007 (5)

First, a tutorial from the colonies on bedside manner:

**Edited late edition**

I'm taking the unusual step of adding something to the top of this selection of articles. It is yet another reference to SJHoward, the medical student. He is clearly much more techno-competent than I, for not only has be managed to capture the Prime Minister's recent interview with John Humphreys, he has been able to script a lot of it, and break it down into bite-size chunks for analysis. This is a British Prime Minister on the ropes. When Blair goes, and after this it will be sooner rather than later, this interview will be long remembered. Take a look at it here on SJHoward.

A fine piece of blogging!

Dr Crippen thinks Patricia is frightened that doctors are petitioning the Prime Minister to sack her. Dr Crippen notes with pleasure that since he highlighted the petition, it now says : "because there are so many signatories, only the most recent 500 are shown". So, if you have not signed, please do so now. In the meantime, Patsy must be scared. What else would this be about?

"Health secretary Patricia Hewitt has said that she is proud of the fact that doctors in the UK are some of the highest paid in the world. Her comments came after concerns were raised over the fact that the current contract for doctors sees their wages uncapped.”

Full story from “Obesity and the Salt Connection.”

Or was it because of this practice manager who wrote to Patsy saying:

…how sorry we are to have been the cause of so much inconveniece to you and your team at the Depratment of Health. How could we have been so inconsiderate? How could we have so exceeded your performance expectations and quality targets. Please, please calm yourself. The solution is at hand.

See what happened here in the Hysteria Blog

Cancer treatment shames Britain. The sort of headline you expect from the gutter press, but when it is in the New Statesman, you have to take a look.

I am worried that, judging by the number of times he visits the lavatory (aka rest-room for you in the colonies) this writer may be developing diabetes. But, diabetic or not, his scientific survey of the lavatory habits of British doctors is disturbing.

One of the most unpleasant, nasty articles I have read about British doctors, written by Terence Blacker. Difficult to know how to reply to this. It is outrageous. Blackman says:

“But by now it was clear to everyone except the doctors that waiting for another 10 days was not an option. My friend was taken to accident and emergency at the local hospital. A neurologist was called in, a scan taken. A brain tumour was discerned on the left frontal lobe, and it was inoperable. Just over five months later, my friend was dead.”

Where is the A/E department that can produce a neurologist at the drop of a hat. This article needs a good fisking. Anyone up to taking it on? I was going to sent it to Dr Rant, but he is stressed enough.

A few days ago, we looked at the problems with NHS 24 in Scotland, currently being sued following the death of a young man who they failed to cure on the telephone. If you have not already read the outstanding article, "Choose your own adventure" from Pathologist's Anonymous, then do so now. It describes quite brilliantly why telephone medicine can never work. Meanwhile, in England, Tales from Tragedy Towers : Tales from NHS DIRECT is becoming essential reading. Find out what is really going on behind the scenes.

More surreptitious privatisation? "Bits being lopped of the NHS"

The NHS is incompetent as an organisation. Its costs are high, its bureaucratic overhead is enormous, it fails to make full use of its assets and it has powerful unions which contribute to the above. Meanwhile the politicians know there is a limit to have much people are prepared to pay in tax. So as the costs grow, the only way to keep the taxpayer half-way happy is gradually to lop off some of the branches of what the NHS does.

A frightening analysis from James Bartholomew

Dr Rant has just kindly translated the article on catastrophic rectal bleeding into earthy anglo-saxon, presumably so that the DK can better understand it. Dr Rant reveals all here.

How would you like a job in Blair’s Britain trying to save a hospital from closure? Actually, half Blair’s Cabinet seem to be actively campaigning against Hewitt’s cuts. Strange world. But saving hospitals is not easy as they are finding out in Cumbria.

Mo is having a bad time getting an appointment at the health centre:

Access to our health centres is rigorously defended by psychopathic cyborgs cunningly disguised as sweet old ladies who call themselves receptionists. On arrival at the health centre you first have to report to security. Head down, apparently staring at a blank piece of paper, you may think the cyborg has sustained a power shut down. No, it is simply trying to annoy you. On all accounts do not sigh, cough or say excuse me. This will result immediately in the pretty cyborg getting up and spending the next 17 minutes searching aimlessly through medical records.

Find out if he ever managed to see the doctor here

In a succession of short posts an increasingly distressed junior doctor describes her progress (sic) through MMC and job application. Dear God, how can we do this to our young doctors?

Rumours that Potentilla has eloped with Dr Grumble are not true. She is battling, not with breast cancer, but with the wretched chemotherapy:

The treacle in my head comes and goes. I didn’t catch Colin’s all-singing all-dancing flu, cold, whatever…but the paclitaxel treacle last week was gradually replaced by viral treacle: I could tell I had something because I was fighting off cold-sores……(continued here)

My lack of sympathy with the Roman Catholic attitude to gay adoptive parents had some HP sauce poured on it during the week, and so I was as ever grateful to the DK for drawing my attention to this site, which lightens up the whole debate by going beyond offence and into the realms of satire. Are these people for real? I fear they may be! They have been banned both by Youtube and Google. Watch the video song. Beyond belief.

Whilst I may not be sympathetic with the RC approach to homosexuality, I am very sympathetic to Catholic Action’s stand on this:

National Health Service staff are being told to stop calling parents 'mother' or 'father' to avoid offending homosexual patients. The terms 'husband', 'wife' and 'married' are also effectively outlawed under anti-homophobia rules being rolled out across the NHS. Instead, doctors, nurses and support staff are urged to use the words 'guardian' or 'carers' when referring to parents, in particular when speaking to children who are patients or visitors……full story here

Will someone please tell Dr Crippen that this is not true.

And yet more religion. Will Islam save or destroy the NHS? :

“You see, God created us perfect and with a very strong defence system. If you breast-feed your child for two years — as the Koran says — and you eat Koranic food like olives and black seed, and you do ablution each time you pray, then you will have a strong defence system. Many vaccines, especially those given to children, are full of haram substances — human parts, gelatine from pork, alcohol, animal/monkey parts, all coming from the West who do not have knowledge of halal or haram. It is forbidden in Islam to have any of these unlawful substances in our bodies.” A Tangled Web

And now on a much needed lighter note, the funniest joke of the month comes from the irrepresbile "Amateur Transplants":

A woman went to the GP's surgery, where she was seen by a young, new doctor. After about 3 minutes in the examination room, the doctor told her she was pregnant...

Punch line available here

Back to the serious stuff. How long can Blair survive. Not long, says SJHoward in a brilliant article containing this:

On top of that, the NHS is in a terrible state, with more doctors going to be out of work any time soon thanks to MMC meaning there aren’t enough jobs to go round, and a Health Secretary who believes we have too many doctors and that last year was the ‘best ever’ for the NHS. Patricia Hewitt announced she’d get NHS debt under control, and it doubled to half a billion pounds - yet this was seen as good progress, despite being twice as much debt as her target amount. The staff of the NHS have lost confidence in her and want her to resign, but Mr Blair continues to back her to the hilt. Oh, and she wants to criminalise any staff who are still there, and she thinks GPs are overpaid - despite it being her who decided how much they were paid. (Read the rest here)

How have I missed SJHoward? A very articulate British Medical student. Take a look at the whole blog here.

Rita often has her head above the parapet in NHS Exposed. The Scientific-Misconduct Blog wades in to support her. Rita dared to challenge the GMC. She subsequently brought proceedings against the GMC, leading to a landmark judgment in which the GMC was described as a totalitarian regime by Judge Charles Harris :

"Anybody who criticises it is said to be prima facie mentally ill - what used to happen in Russia".

The Scientific-Misconduct Blog (worth reading in its entirely) goes on to say:

Dr Pal has a brain and a heart the size of a planet. The great pity is that if Dr Pal had not been so abused (by the very body that claims to regulate integrity in our profession) she would doubtless be one of the shining stars of medicine.

The Scientific-Misconduct Blog is about the distortion of scientific debate, most particularly by powerful forces in medicine. It is about the way in which industry, professional bodies, government regulators and powerful individuals collude to prevent scientific debate and to victimize those asking difficult questions (www.nhsexposed.com). It is about the way those entrusted with authority behave.

One such case is that of the psychologist Lisa Blakemore Brown, a specialist in Autism, ADHD & Aspergers [website] [Book]. Blakemore Brown has been involved on the "wrong side" of the debate about the psychiatric disorder Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSbP), maintaining that many parents have been falsely accused of injuring their children.

For doctors and patients interested in asthma, and in particular the parents of children with asthma, a serious discussion on the perennial problem of inhaler technique. Do videos help? Find out here

What really happens with triage in A/E? This patient asks:

“If there is a common policy in the NHS that allows the doctors in charge of the patients when they are first admitted to decide whether they have a chance of survival and if not they then deny them any treatment, medication or sustenance until it could be too late.”

It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their “immortality”. Dr Crippen would normally take that with a pinch of salt. But this is not from a Quacktitioner. It is in the New Scientist.

Dr Crippen has concerns about the care, or lack of care, for schizophrenics. It is a bogey word. Would it help if we renamed it?

Diagnosis and treatment are more important than semantics:

More than half of people would turn to therapists such as faith healers rather than endure long NHS waiting lists, according to a new poll. And more than two thirds (67%) believe in the psychic powers of mediums and clairvoyants, 54% in ghosts, and 41% in an intelligent life on another planet, the poll found.

Says the Black Bag

Harry says that thanks to Margaret Thatcher your teeth don't count as something the NHS is particularly interested in.

Aginoth is in trouble again with his health:

What else is going on, been to the Dermatologist this morning for a review of my expensive psoriasis drugs, the Primary Care Trust agreed funding runs out in 2 months time and the Derm is now begining to make my case for continued funding (£9k per year). Enbrel is the only drug in 11 years of Psoriasis that has ever worked for a prolonged period and I am a little concerned that the funding won't be renewed in light of current NHS spending caps,

Why do we have to keep reading stories like this? At least Aginoth finds some comfort with Blood, Sweat and Tea from Tom Reynolds

The bearded man takes a look at what happens when doctors go on strike in a totalitarian country.

Derek Humphry is the founder of The Hemlock Society, and writes:

Four out of five people in Britain believe the law should allow a doctor to end the life of a terminally ill patient who is in pain if they wish to die. In a finding confirming that British public opinion is at odds with the law, the British Social Attitudes Survey reveals strong support for euthanasia, though only in carefully defined circumstances.

Read it all on the Assisted-Suicide Blog

Junior doctors are organising to fight the increasingly ludicrous MMC. You can support them here

Worried about big brother? Not in Warminster; they have welcomed him in.

Squander Two has a gruesome discussion on abortion, and on partial birth abortion:

It is commonly believed in the UK that American anti-abortionists are extremist nutters. What we see of them over here certainly tends to support that view. However, it is also commonly believed in the UK that American abortion law is similar to British abortion law. It isn't even close. For instance, in my experience, Britons are surprised to discover that abortion is legal in the US during the ninth month of pregnancy for non-medical reasons:

One might ask how one goes about aborting a baby that is pretty much ready to be born and that could in fact be delivered healthy and alive if need be. The answer is partial-birth abortion:

Once the cervix is sufficiently dilated, the doctor uses an ultrasound and forceps to grasp the fetus' leg. The fetus is turned to a breech position, if necessary, and the doctor pulls one or both legs out of the birth canal, causing what is referred to by some people as the 'partial birth' of the fetus. The doctor subsequently extracts the rest of the fetus, usually without the aid of forceps, leaving only the head still inside the birth canal. An incision is made at the base of the skull and a suction catheter is inserted into the cut. The brain tissue is removed, which causes the skull to collapse and allows the fetus to pass more easily through the birth canal.

Wrong Planet is a web community designed for individuals (and parents of those) with Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, ADHD, and other PDDs. And they are not very happy with doctors in the UK.

And finally, on behalf of the medical profession in general, and family doctors in particular, may I take this opportunity to pass on our grateful thanks to our esteemed ex-negotiator, Dr Simon Fradd.

Dr Simon Fradd

Remember Gerald Ratner, the man who destroyed his company with one after-dinner joke? Well, we have our very own Crapner. Stand up Simon Fradd. What a complete areshole this man has become.

Read a brilliant analysis of Fradd's stupidity.

And there is more. Fradd is no longer a negotiator. He seems to have set up a private company. Has the poacher become a gamekeeper? Is he thinking of being a health care "management consultant"? Can someone explain exactly what this company is going to do?

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Any reader wanting to look the pick of the week's none medical blogs should go over to Tim Worstall's weekly Britblogs.

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Please send your recommendations for next week’s BritMeds to: thebritmedsATnhsblogdoc.wanadoo.co.uk