The last nine months have seen significant efforts to break down the national reserve which surrounds talking about end of life care and death. The launch pad was the Government’s End of Life Care Strategy published last July. By outlining a six step end of life care pathway the strategy provided a real opportunity to […]
Category: Guest writers
Mairi Scott and Tom Love on pandemic flu training for retired health care professionals
Pressures on the workforce are going to be one of the big challenges for the NHS in a pandemic. One strategy which might help with this problem is to draw upon retired health professionals, who could fulfil a number of possible roles. This approach has been suggested in a number of pandemic influenza plans which we reviewed […]
Tracey Koehlmoos on chronic disease management in Bangladesh
Maybe you have never thought about Bangladesh and do not know Dhaka from Dakar, but I do. I think about Bangladesh every day. I have lived in South Asia long enough to wrap my own sari and to think that purple and orange go together well at least some of the time. […]
B M Hegde on flu
I was working in Ipswich in a cardiothoracic centre during the 1968-69 ‘Flu epidemic. During the Xmas week end of 1968 I had to be on call from Friday through Monday morning as most of my colleagues were on leave. I had to certify more than 50 deaths, mostly in the geriatric age group. Elderly […]
Adrian Gonzalez on swine flu in Mexico
In 2003 I was at the BMJ’s offices in Tavistock Square, London, when China’s SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic was at its peak. At that time the risk of infection seemed far away. Today is different; I’m living and working in Tlalpan, the district of Mexico City that holds the largest concentration of hospitals […]
Jane Parry on flu
Hong Kongers have lived through more than their fair share of bird flu scares across the border in China over the last few years, and, of course, Sars in 2003 when 299 people in the city died of the disease. Then there was the cull of Hong Kong’s entire poultry population back in 1997. It’s […]
Richard Thompson and Frank Wells on prescribing rights for retired UK doctors
The proposed introduction by the General Medical Council (GMC) of compulsory detailed assessment of doctors every five years, perhaps starting in November this year, is difficult for those not regularly working in clinical medicine to achieve. This revalidation will be necessary to maintain a licence to practise, and hence prescribe and administer prescription only medicines […]
Nicola While on the European Parliament elections
Amid all the frenzy around the economic crisis, MPs expenses, and celebrity gossip, one would be forgiven for thinking that the British media have forgotten all about the forthcoming European Parliament elections. Never the most popular news topic, this year’s European Parliament election will none the less be the biggest transnational election in history. Between […]
Alan Nye on hitting the 18-week target
Some doctors have been complaining of a targetitis epidemic within the NHS for years. Such world-weariness should not detract from confirmation that the health service in England has achieved its commitment to treat patients within 18 weeks of referral – where clinically appropriate and convenient to the patient. […]
David Kerr on preventing cervical cancer in Africa
I think we have reached a pivotal moment in the fight to prevent cervical cancer in Africa. This week I organised an international meeting in Oxford, bringing together representatives of the First Ladies of Nigeria and Uganda, African health ministers, pharmaceutical companies, and leading cervical cancer doctors, to map out a strategy for cervical cancer […]