The last few weeks have been life-changing for thousands of final year medical students, present company included. Final exams themselves have been a far off concept for many of us since the very beginning of our medical student lives—we have been perpetually aware of them, but they always seemed to happen to someone else. Even […]
Category: Junior doctors
Emma Rourke: Junior doctors don’t put patients’ lives at risk
It’s coming up to that time of year once again, where—for newly qualified doctors across the country—the jubilation associated with passing finals gives way to the incipient dread of the first day in a new job, and the knowledge that very soon patients’ lives really will be in their hands. It’s well known that if […]
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 […]
Hannah Bass on healthtalkonline.org
The award-winning experiential health website, healthtalkonline.org, launched a new section devoted to carers of people with a terminal illness on Wednesday. The website’s real life stories are proving a valuable resource not only to patients but also to health professionals. healthtalkonline already hosts thousands of videos of people talking about their experiences of different medical […]
Tom Yates: Separate analysis of independent and industry supported studies would be informative
I am very glad the Cochrane Collaboration exists. However, it is important to consider how its activities might be harmful and to take every effort to mitigate this risk. I periodically re-read Joel Lexchin’s review of outcome in industry supported vs non industry supported studies to remind myself of the powerful and pervasive impact that […]
Ken Taylor: Dr Foster on inpatient hospital mortality
On the Today programme on Radio 4 on Monday morning there was a feature on these recently released data. Two areas were discussed. Hospital mortality is higher out of hours ie nights and weekends. The other item discussed was the smaller number of senior doctors in the hospital out of hours. John Humphrys interviewed a spokesman […]
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 […]
Tom Yates: Is stoicism an important and neglected confounder?
‘Most doctors and nurses will have a deep well of patient stories – examples of great fortitude and its converse. It is clear to any clinician that some patients either feel their symptoms (or report them) more than others. […]
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 […]