The junior doctor strike in England triggered an Oxford Union debate last month about the extent to which patient safety is compromised when public sector workers take industrial action. But will health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s revamp of pay and conditions stop at doctors? Are nurses in his sights? And if so, how likely are they […]
Tag: Junior doctors
Helen Macdonald: Dunce hat until April
Out with pacey surgical ward rounds; pain controlled, E+D, BO, OE – alert, obs stable, neurovascularly in tact, plan – drain out, fluids down, OT/PT, home when safe, OP 6/52. Out with debates about thromboprophylaxis, clotting and bleeding. Out with preadmission clinics. Out with being the crash team leader – I’ll not be sad to […]
Helen Macdonald: Dangerous weekends – more complicated than just a lack of consultants
Why are patients in English hospitals more likely to die at the weekend? A good question, put to Dr Mark Porter, head of the BMA’s consultants’ committee by John Humphrys on the Today programme on Radio 4 yesterday morning. It was a difficult question for him to answer in a couple of sound bites. The […]
Fiona Pathiraja: Putting a price on safety
It’s the first week of August and in the NHS that can only mean one thing. Changeover has arrived and thousands of newly qualified doctors are let loose on the wards. For decades, patients and doctors alike have joked that it is best to avoid a hospital stay in August. Lately, this myth has been […]
Fiona Pathiraja: Investing in future clinical leaders
For a medic still just under thirty, I have deviated from the traditional medical career path several times. Working as a healthcare management consultant, setting up a start up enterprise and being on secondment to the Department of Health have broadened my understanding of the healthcare landscape. The controversy over the planned NHS reforms has […]
Helen Carnaghan on the cost of becoming a surgeon
So you want to be a surgeon? As a new medical graduate do you really know what this entails? I thought I did, but quickly learnt otherwise. […]
Helen Carnaghan: The messy business of learning
Many things have changed during my transition from medical student to junior doctor. For starters my bank account contains a mysterious thing called money, a 30 minute lunch break is something I dream about and leaving hospital on time a distant memory. Amongst the changes one of the biggest is the way I learn. […]
Helen Carnaghan’s transition from medical student to junior doctor
Over the past seven months my life has drastically changed having gone from a perpetual medical student to junior doctor in the blink of an eye. Looking back on the transition from a more settled position I can see the old adage of “don’t get sick in August” is a true reflection of the fears […]
Bruno Rushforth on the roles we play
It’s amazing how quickly one adapts. The first couple of days were a bit of a shock, but I soon accepted my fate and – rather worryingly – began to take on the role of the underling almost willingly. I remember how the same thing happened when I’d started medical school. Having worked prior to […]
Helen Barratt is feeling the pinch
Last week I found myself at a conference on multidisciplinary teamwork in the NHS, and one of the keynote speakers observed that the main benefit of the “credit crunch” is that bankers have overtaken healthcare professionals as the most hated profession in the country. The media is full of stories of doom, as the banking […]