The primary care innovation seminars group, a primary healthcare think tank that was created in Spain in 2005, convened this weekend in Barcelona. The group used to meet several times a year in Madrid. This year, group members gathered for the first time outside the Spanish capital, with the added bonus of the presence of […]
Category: Columnists
Martin McShane: Why?
A frequent refrain is “we mustn’t recreate PCTs.” Increasingly, when I hear or see it said I want to ask five why’s. Let me give you an example. “We don’t want to recreate PCTs.” Why? “Because they were bureaucratic.” Why? “Because they made people jump through loads of hoops to get anything done.” Why? “Because […]
Martin McShane: Integration
I was recently asked to give a brief talk on the role of a commissioner in integrated care. Chris Ham, Judith Smith, and Elizabeth Eastmure’s paper on this issue highlights the factors on which commissioners need to focus on to make a success of commissioning integrated care and some of the barriers currently in place. […]
Julian Sheather: Making health decisions in advance – how best to avoid your worst nightmare?
On coming into force, the Mental Capacity Act (MCA), by deftly drawing together common law and permitting, via new powers of attorney, the nomination of substitute health decision makers, looked set to move practice in anticipatory decision making into a new era. The MCA is certainly a good act. It is supported by principles, focuses […]
Richard Smith: UN meeting on NCDs – day two
Tuesday 20 September. Day two 7.10 Traffic is gridlocked near the UN building because so many streets are shut. Obama hits the UN today—not unfortunately the NCD meeting. […]
Richard Smith: A diary of the UN meeting
Monday 19 September. Day one 7.10 I arrive at the junction of 47 Street East and 2nd Avenue to meet the Pepsico people who are holding a breakfast meeting in the UN dining room. I meet several cronies that I haven’t seen for a long while and reflect traitorously that global health is maybe like […]
Richard Smith: A diary of the UN meeting on NCDs
Saturday 17 September. Day minus two 17.20 Arrive in New York. A bigger queue than ever at immigration. Do they really want visitors? After an hour I reach the booth. “When were you in Pakistan?” “Just over a year ago.” “What do you do?” “I run a programme in developing countries working on heart disease […]
Richard Smith: Should there be easier access to new drugs?
There is increasing pressure for drug regulators to provide quicker access to new drugs. The pressure comes from doctors, patients, politicians, and the drug industry. What is likely to happen? Will patients get quicker access to new drugs? A month ago an oncologist proposed in the New England Journal of Medicine that oncologists should be able […]
David Kerr: The subject that dare not speak its name
Working in the NHS must sometimes feel like working for the United Nations. Whilst first impressions are that our own current team of overseas trainees are actually above average in terms of skill, knowledge, and communication, the General Medical Council are worried that some doctors from outside of the UK arrive here with “little or no […]
Richard Smith: Improving dementia care
The recent meeting of the Cambridge Health Network on dementia swung between pessimism and optimism, reflecting perhaps the national feeling. Dementia, said several speakers, is where cancer was 30 years ago and HIV 20 years ago: feared, not talked about, neglected, and thought untreatable. But there’s every reason why the same progress can be made […]