The BritMeds 2007 (26)
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Warm the cockles with this:
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But we should be proud of the NHS – an American writes:
I think of myself as a pretty well informed person. Not so much when it comes to the issue of healthcare, but I know what's going on in our system even though I avoid doctors of all sorts like the plague itself. But seeing the things that are free in crazy socialized healthcare countries like Canada, France, England and Cuba, it was just astonishing. People would laugh at Moore when asked questions like how much it costs to have a baby in a hospital [answer: $0 in England] or the price of 30 pills opposed to a prescription of 120 [answer: the same under England's NHS].Philly
Learning when England decided to change their healthcare system to a universally covered system was astonishing. It was 1948, just after World War II as most of England was rubble and bankrupt, they decided that no person should go without coverage. Good show.
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Or maybe not, for another American writes:
This confirmed the report of the Commonwealth Fund's International Working Group on Quality Indicators which found cancer survival rates were lowest in the UK and patients had the longest waits for elective surgery. “Roughly 40 percent of cancer patients never get to see an oncology specialist. Delays in receiving treatment are often so long that nearly 20 percent of colon cancer cases considered treatable when first diagnosed are incurable by the time treatment is finally offered”
Look before we leap into socialized medicine
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TOP LEVEL wanker of the week
An award granted to the writer of this
Read the extraordinary correspondence here.Maybe it is all justified. Maybe. But foul mouthed ad hominen abuse is something one would more normally associate with drunken white van drivers.
You would not catch Tom doing this, however strongly he felt.
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The crux of the matter
This 'dumbing down' debate is an interesting one, and it certainly has the potential to get pretty emotional and messy. I felt the need to clarify my position as some people feel the strange desire to distort things in a way that stifles a proper discussion.
The ferret in trouble
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Help.
Dr Crippen is completly baffled. Can anyone explain what this is about?And who is Oona? I don’t know her.
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MMR trouble approaching
Oh dear, Wakefield is back, this time with PatrickPart 1
Part 2
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List of nursing diagnoses in Wikipedia
Read it quickly as it may not be there long. And share your thoughts.
This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia's deletion policy. Please share your thoughts on the matter at this article's entry on the Articles for deletion page. Feel free to edit the article, but the article must not be blanked, and this notice must not be removed, until the discussion is closed. For more information, particularly on merging or moving the article during the discussion, read the guide to deletion.Wikipedia
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A new medical student
There is no doubt in my mind that applying to medical school was the single most coveted and stressful thing I’ve encountered in my life. A transitory paradise was reached April 26th 2007 – the day I got into Barts. For me this was fleeting – I hadn’t secured my place until I met my offer. From then on I was elated, knowing that all I had to do was turn up in September and start to learn medicine.
Unprotected Text
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Partial Birth Abortion May Soon Be a Reality In Northern Ireland.
…a process whereby a child is aborted (read “murdered”) as it is being born. If you think this is too horrific even for abortionists to stoop too, it has been going on in America for years.Hidden Ireland
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More insight from across the pond
Socialized medicine? What are the pros and cons?It’s wonderful life
One only has to listen to the talking heads, read the newspaper, surf the net - particularly the medical blogs at any given time or work in the medical field to know that we are in a health care crisis in America.
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Which bring me to this patronising effort from today’s Indy:
Obese people twice as likely to get Alzheimer’s
By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor- Published: 29 June 2007
Britain’s obesity explosion could trigger a second even more serious epidemic - of dementia. Experts warned yesterday that our fondness for fast food and resistance to exercise was not only causing waistlines to bulge - it is also damaging our brains.
Obesity is bad for you. This is well established.
It increases your risk on winding up with all manner of nasty shit, like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, sleep apnea, gallstones, hernias, fatty liver disease, renal failure, osteoarthritis, stokes, that most people would much rather not have to deal with.
But clearly none of shit is scary enough to stop people pigging out at Maccy D’s, so now the ‘experts’ are wanting to tack going doolally-tap on to the list to make the whole business ever scarier.
Dumbing down dementia from the Ministry of Truth
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TIME TO ADDRESS THE FEMINISATION OF THE MEDICAL WORKFORCE
Indeed, The Witch Doctor would go as far as to say that along with the European Working Time Directive, and an ageing population, feminsation of the medical workforce is the thrust behind MTAS/MMC, Agenda for Change, the introduction of the National Practitioner Escalator, the Expert Patient, and indeed almost all aspects of NHS Modernisation.
There is a major problem!
The Witch doctor
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Andrew Wakefield and the death of the MMR debacle
More MMR trouble is brewing
Left Brain/right brain
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Simplicity is the key
Trevor Gay
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Surely not!
Dr Rant loves John Crippen. But occasionally he can be a bit of an old fart.Dr Rant
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Most people agree that there are too many abortions already.
A doctors' representative body has voted in favour of a reduction in the number of physicians needed to approve abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. The British Medical Association approved a call for just one doctor to need to sign the form instead of two as at present. The association's annual conference in Devon, England, rejected a proposal that midwives and nurses should do abortions. [BBC, 27 June] Anthony Ozimic, SPUC political secretary, commented: "The call for abortion to be made more freely available in early pregnancy is inept. This would lead to even greater pressure on women, with less opportunity for them to reflect before making a decision, and therefore will lead to greater numbers of abortions. Most people agree that there are too many abortions already.Catholic Action UK
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The DK and Dr Rant
Exactly what are your qualifications to give an opinion on health policy, DK? How about you shut the fuck up about things about which you are, frankly, ignorant, and stick to euro-bashing.
There's a good Devil.
The Devil is being a tosser
Dr Rant
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“Poor” old Patricia
Ministers Severance Payments.The Wardman Wire
Generally, 3 months of annual ministerial salary is payable when a minister ceases to hold office. Full details are set out in section 4 of the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991 [PGA 1991 chapter 5], as amended. A Cabinet Minister’s salary is currently just under £140,000, so that severance payment is around £35k.
Quite why any Minister - never mind one who has proven to be an incompetent dolt in office - should pocket that sort of money while still taking an MP’s salary of £60,675 is beyond my ken.
Patricia Hewitt is also entitled to all the other MP’s perks - including the £22,000 “Additional Costs Allowance” a year available to nearly all MPs for accommodation which many use to buy flats in Central London. These flats - purchased using taxpayers’ money - are not returned to the taxpayer when the MP leaves Parliament.
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Congenial well paid job for doctors on the dole
"RemedyUK are looking for doctors with local connections to either of these two constituencies to stand as candidates to highlight the threats to the NHS. If 'your' doctor fills that criterion and would like to find out more, do get in touch."Vicky Ford
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Abortion reform
UK doctors have voted that women should no longer be required to obtain the consent of two doctors in order to have an abortion. Currently, two doctors must agree that continuing the pregnancy poses a greater threat to the woman’s physical or mental health than terminating it. This has been a serious barrier for many women,Feminist philosophers
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The obese orthopod – BMI > 50
Fascinating story of orthopaedic surgeon who has gastric banding.Chris Oliver
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The most selfish patient ever
Just how selfish would you need to be to think "That Dr McCann's a right selfish fuck. He might think that having his 4 year old daughter kidnapped, with no idea of whether she is alive or dead or having who-knows-what done to her at this very moment by some sick bastards, but what does he know about pain? I had my appointment for my ingrown toenail cancelled because of his slack attitudeDr Rant
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What are the five worst things that Patricia Hewitt did?
For the last two years, the NHS has been in the hands of a complete and utter failure. Her tenure as Secretary of State for Health has been an unmitigated disaster for the health service. Just as she finished her role as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry by decimating the MG-Rover workforce, so shall her term end with large numbers of junior doctors, nurses and midwives seeking a job. So, what was so bad about her time in office? Here is Dr Rant's top five...So much choice, but do you agree with Dr Rant?
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An auxiliary’s tale
I am currently on "nutter watch". This is a name I have given the shift myself, since I have had to seclude myself down on the far end of the ward, alone, to make sure a certain patient doesn't keep getting out of bed and wandering around.The Oracle
Quite how she is still awake I have no idea. She's been given enough temazepam to knock out a small elephant.
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Congenial well paid job for doctors on the dole
We all wish to know what the GMC gives its workers after they have taken the £290 off us. Its more perks than a junior doctor gets really, isn't it? They all get free gym membership and a few other things. Indeed, I have today applied to the GMC as the NHS whistleblower.
How the GMC spends our money
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Exam results time
On another note, results came out on the 21st and were quite disappointing. I passed overall, but….Short white coats
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LondonMedicGirl is a 24 year old, slightly ambivalent, female medical student at a London teaching hospital. She doubts her vocation weekly, if not daily
Yesterday I spent a considerable amount of my time actually working- I even decided to do a bit more work post-bath while I had hot chocolate! Admittedly I did also manage to watch a rather significant number of episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy” in between all that concientiousness, but still- WORK!!LondonMedicGirl
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When should doctors do home visits?
I am quite happy to agree in theory that patients should only be visited at home if they are truly housebound or are terminally ill. That is certainly the view of our keen young partner. But in practice I am inclined to be a bit more accommodating about visit requests, perhaps thinking back to how things used to be. Some of my other partners feel this even more strongly than I do, and this is one of the sources of discord within the partnership.A Fortunate Man
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Hello Doctor
So I sat in the Surgery of the Doctor's, waiting not so patiently. My appointment had been for 9.40, I was still sitting there at 10.30.One Bear, One Blog
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Waiting
No news from breast screening as yet so I await my mammogram and suppose I'm in a state of limbo really, but as above, life does go on, you can't possibly be wallowing in your troubles every waking minute of every day. I did phone them to say as I work on the hospital site I could take a cancellation virtually at a moment's notice, so we'll see.Lizzie
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Blogging doctor hopes to be MP
Well - he's finally done it. Gordon Brown has finally acheived his ambition and become Prime Minister. After 10 years brooding in the Treasury, he can now come out of the shadows and show us all what he is made of. I'm not "bovvered" - because we already know what he is made of. He says he will bring in lots of changes. Absolute rubbish. For those of us who work in public services, we know Gordon himself has been directing what we do from the very start of this Government. It is the Treasury-set PSA targets that we have had to work on. The centralised control has been via the grip on financing by targets and dictat from the Treasury.Rachel Joyce
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MMC and MTAS
Training and the Royal Colleges
The petition
Dr Grumble
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More on McBitch
I swear on my life (and all the lives of the people I love) that I will never, ever become a vicious, sneaky bully like McBitch. And I swear that if I ever find out that someone I know is being bullied, I'll do everything in my power to rectify their situation and make sure they know it isn't their fault.Hospital Phoenix
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Another day in the life…
Our overpriced, underdelivering, bungling, lying, hopeless "government" lurches through another day:Wat Tyler
NHS fiasco leaves 4,000 jobs unfilled:
"The full extent of the junior doctor recruitment crisis was laid bare yesterday after figures showed that thousands of training posts have not yet been filled.
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Please send your recommendations for next week’s BritMeds to: thebritmedsATnhsblogdoc.wanadoo.co.uk
The BritMeds will now be published on Saturday morning, so please let me have your recommendations by Friday evening latest.
31 Comments:
Only read a couple so far but some mad stuff - oona - mad! nursing diagnoses? - mad!
I'm a nurse and it is just crazy, needs deleting, the world has gone mad!
Nice work giving Chris Oliver's blog a mention.
He's a great guy, a fantastic surgeon, and a highly intelligent and insightful chap. He also puts in a lot of work at the Royal College.
It's a shame he doesn't have comments enabled over at his blog so we could encourage him as he gets fit and loses weight.
John,
And to be fair, I pointed out that Dr Rant was talking rubbish.
There are, actually, valid criticisms of what I wrote (I often leave these in to stimulate debate or, more often, simply because I want to keep the force of what I've written) and Rant missed all of them.
DK
The obesity/Alzheimer's report comes from the Alzheimer's Society and I think they've just shot themselves in the foot big time.
I predict that obesity will be prominently associated with Alzheimer's in the future, courtesy of the government, but not in the way they want.
Our population is aging. Dementia cases of all forms are going to increase. If HMG can get it in the public consciousness that "it's their own fault because they were fat" there will be less sympathy for the poor service that will be offered dementia patients.
How much sympathy is there for ex-smoker lung cancer patients today?
Some years ago, I had lunch with a novelist who announced he had recently made it into the 'big' time because he had acquired his own stalker. Apparently, this is quite common about writers, 'meeja' darlings and similar.
Maybe Oona is a sign that you have 'arrived' in some deeply weird fashion...
As ever, thank you for the work that went into this compilation.
Too right, Bob Dowling. It is an own goal in terms of trying to promote better services for people with AD.
Of course, it would never be considered that some people become obese because they have a well-founded fear of falling or they live in areas that mean elderly people feel unsafe when they are out and about.
No. It is all their own fault. And just to make sure of it, let's lower the BMI for obesity to 27 (currently overweight rather than obese). After all, shifting the criteria did wonders for creating a new class of people with pre-hypertension.
Talking of results, I need a new posting moniker (tricky as I'm in that space where I've finished my degree, but have yet to apply for professional registration).
I got a first, which was surprising and pleasing at the same time (although degree classification doesn't matter from here onwards: interview performance and actual jobs being available do).
Could Oona Crippen really be the long lost cyberdaughter of Dr John Crippen ? Methinks Yes !
well done, OT!
Oona Crippen looks very scary ! She gives me the creeps. It's as if she is right in the same room as you - scrutinizing your every move.
I liked Chris Oliver's blog, & I would second the suggestion that he has a comments section.
As far as association between AD and obesity, cerebrovascular disease will be the common pathway (not fully proven yet), plus our ability to keep obese patients alive for longer with metformin/statins/ACEI etc etc.
davidb
Ah, but how do we go about telling Mr Oliver to activate his comments section when there's no comments section for us to comment in, in order to tell him to activate his comments?
YIKES !!!!!!!!!! THAT OONA CRIPPEN IS TOTALLY OUT OF THIS WORLD !!!!!!!!!!! SHE IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO VERY FREAKY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
medical jokes
Just come back from the States, where I was invovled with two medical problems. One of our party had cellulitis of the ankle. He went to the ER. Was triaged. Then waited 6 hours. Then had to find an all nu=ight pharmacy to get his antibiotics as the hospital does not give them out. That took another 2 hours. * hours in all for a fairly simple problem.
Next chap had pleurisy 2y to pneumonia. Seen and x-rayed in 2 hours, given one dose of antibiotics and we had to organise the rest. Had already had 24 hours of amoxicillin from me.
Se one good, one poor. very different system, but on the whole most of the Americans I spoke to consider the provision of health care in their country to be a disgrace, and would like a national system, waiting lists and all.
So we take that to heart, and try to screw it up. Wonderful.
Saturday, June 30, 2007 9:04:00 PM
thanks for the comments about my blog, I will open the comments section, I am a bit apprehensive as I am unsure what will be said?
In a fight between DK and Dr Rant, Dr Rant wins hands down.
see:
http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Dr+Rant&word2=Devil%27s+Kitchen
Well done Dr Crippen for tracking Mr Oliver down!
And thanks to Mr Oliver for commenting here - I expect you'll receive some very positive and encouraging feedback on your blog but I understand why you'd be apprehensive.
I'll definitely be popping by to see how you're getting on, and how the triathlon training is coming along. Keep up the good work!
Fascinated by the Medical Licensing Commission.
A big hoax?
If it isn't, it should be. Virtual people creep me out.
The MLC?
I am sure it is a hoax. I think. But how very odd!
John
I don't think the MLC is a hoax at all. The MLC seems very much alive on the web , and now (thanks to little Ms Oona Crippen - or whatever her name is) , the MLC is currently the most gossiped about topic in the NHS.
I like Oona . . .
One nice thing about the MLC is that we all now have a weird and wonderful alternative to the GMC. That alone is enough for me. I will definitely register with the MLC, if not only just to stick two fat fingers up to the GMC.
I have just emailed my CV to the MLC - I feel so liberated !
OT - what do you make of the latest terrorists being doctors?
No. It is all their own fault. And just to make sure of it, let's lower the BMI for obesity to 27 (currently overweight rather than obese). After all, shifting the criteria did wonders for creating a new class of people with pre-hypertension.
Shinga, Saturday, June 30, 2007 9:31:00 AM
...and not only is it all their own fault, the stress might be even making them fatter, according to research published in Nature, reported here: http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Its-official--stress-makes-you-fat/2007/07/02/1183351105088.html
Thanks for including me in this weeks Britmeds Dr.C,
It would have to be the most incriminating one on the entire blog though:
Rule #1. Never admit to being online at work.
Oh dear!
Ps. Chris, I really enjoyed your blog too! Keep it up!
I just asked Oona Crippen to marry me !
Guess what she said ?
She replied : "Why don't you just download me ?"
I love the MLC !
hey - i love oona crippen too !
Oona Crippen is the latest blog sensation . I want to take here out on a date . Oona Crippen seriously rocks my world !
Sorry Dr Rex, but I think you actually meant to say that you wanted to take HER (Oona) out on a date.
Wouldn't we all.
Oona Crippen is the ideal lunch date for any man - gay or straight.
Oona Crippen is the ultimate fag hag and sex kitten - all merged in one.
The MLC has definitely scored a major political coup with Oona - as everyone in the NHS is talking about her !
The collateral publicity which Oona is generating for the MLC is probably worth thousands of dollars every single hour.
Smart Thinking , MLC.
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