The Britmeds 2008 (23 February)

The Britmeds are back.

Whilst NHS BLOG DOCTOR was resting, the Dr Rant foundation kindly filled in. From now on the weekly choice of the Best of British Medical blogging is going to shared amongst a wider range of medical bloggers.

In The Duck is Dead, long live the Duck, Science and Progress reports that the recently established Quackometer were put out of business by legal action from, inter alia, the homepaths. Quite right too. As we saw recently, Christine Glover, an ex-president of the British Pharmaceutical Society, is a purveyor of homeopathic remedies including Udder Care. No one would call her a quack.

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STOP PRESS

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Dr Crippen is delighted to announce that The Quackometer has reappeared. The $100 Homeopath Implausibility Challenge prize has still not been won after 11 weeks. Perhaps Christine Glover will have a go.

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And you thought we have problems with quackery in the UK? Quackdown looks at the hidden cost of medicine on the cheap:

India has more fake than genuine doctors, according to K.K. Kohli, who chairs the anti-quackery committee of the Delhi Medical Council. In Delhi alone there are around 40,000. (The Economist)

In Phone this number and sort it out yourself, The Register looks at the reality of Choose and Book.

How to become a paramedic:

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The first step in distance learning. Next week, how to become a surgeon.

Dr Rant is still having treatment after reading the David Aaronovitch article in the Times. In David Aaronovitch goes to the Khazi, Dr Crippen tried to be temperate. I am sure Dr Rant tried too, but sadly he failed and produced David Fuckwitovitch, moron of the year.

"For me, the most difficult patients are those poor worried creatures who turn up once or twice a year with a new set of vague symptoms that probably don't add up to anything but just might."

More kindly insight from “A fortunate man”

The Cockroach Catcher asks why we value the free informal opinion from a medical friend more than the formal consultation

We all have different views on who to listen to as far as advice is concerned. It seems doctors still top the list and I have often had friends asking me for a second opinion. I did not think much about it at first as I was getting used to it. Now I realise that a second opinion from a doctor who does not charge a fee is considered most valuable.

A medical student meets a young patient with brain damage.

Rita is still going strong, and as trenchant as ever.

A frightening post on Racism in middle England.

Why are we the Prozac nation (? world). Because of unreasonable expectations

I can treat depression, most of the time. But gifting bliss is beyond me. I am not a stand up comic, a clown, or a Butlins red coat. Making people happy is not my job. So why do I sometimes feel it should be

Some sound advice from The Shrink

One of the joys of HCPs and over-promoted quacktitioners is the way they take refuge behind specious jargon and patronising, euphemistic, dumbed-down check-lists, for example

What is the client's perspective of need?

SHP, a psychiatry registrar, has just the answer.

Mousethinks has a story from A & E that will make Sir Stuart Rose happy.

More Stay and Play.

"Your husband's heart has stopped", I explain, "We are doing everything that we can for him and we need to make a decision now. Do we take him to hospital, or do we continue here and stop if there is no chance of getting him back. We are doing everything that the hospital would do for him".

"What would you like us to do?", I ask her.

Tom Reynolds, Random Acts of Reality

"We are doing everything that the hospital would do from him.” Do we need doctors any more? Who should make this decision? Despite what you see on television, the prognosis for cardiac arrest is grim. Grim of not, when I have mine, I want the following sequence of events to take place:

1. Chest pain
2. 999
3. Paramedics
4. Hospital and doctors
5. Undertakers

I do not mind omitting (5) but I do not want my chance of arriving in (4) to be prejudiced by (3). Call me silly, but I do not believe that paramedics have the same skills and equipment as doctors in hospital. So, unless we are out in the Brecon Beacons, take me to hospital. I think I might get that tattooed on my chest

Mental Nurse takes a careful look at the Bridgend Suicides

Home births are unacceptable to me, a mere male. Of course there is another side to the story. Sadly, the other side is too frequently put by the lunatic fringe of placenta eating independent madwives. Good enough Mum, herself a doctor, puts it rationally.

I had both my babies by what you might call natural childbirth. I don't in fact call it that, partly because the term makes it sound as though the naturalness was somehow the goal in and of itself in some sort of Luddite repudiation of technology, and partly because it's yet another example of how overused and meaningless the word 'natural' is. After all, porcelain tubs filled with hot water are no more likely to grow in the natural setting than epidurals are, but I certainly found a soak in the bath of vital importance to handling the pain in my first labour. However, I had unassisted low-tech vaginal deliveries for both, pretty much unmedicated (I had two Paracetamol when in labour with Jamie, and a very brief go on the gas and air with Katie, but no Pethidine or epidurals).