As the strikes continue and the BMA votes to escalate action I have been searching for some of the more positive aspects of the present situation. Over the past few months a whole generation of doctors has engaged with politics and leadership. We have woken up to the fact that we have a powerful voice […]
Category: NHS
Junior doctor strike: Angels need to eat and pay their bills
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 […]
Kallur Suresh: Is the dementia plan for England a challenge too far?
Last week saw the publication of the implementation plan for the Prime Minister’s Challenge on Dementia 2020. This new challenge aims to consolidate and build on the progress made since the first challenge issued by the Prime Minister in 2012. The challenge has the laudable aims of making England the best place to live well […]
Janis Burns: Why the GMC should advocate for juniors in the contract dispute
As a doctor I am regulated by the General Medical Council (GMC) and I have mixed feelings towards this body. Its function is to protect the public from bad doctors. This is simultaneously reassuring and terrifying. Not all doctors who find themselves in front of a fitness to practise tribunal are bad and the experience is, […]
Junior doctors’ strike: March 2016: Live blog
This week, junior doctors in England will be taking industrial action for the third time so far this year in response to the government’s decision to impose a new contract on the profession. The strike action will result in junior doctors offering emergency care only for 48 hours from 8am on Wednesday 9 March to 8am Friday 11 […]
Claire Beecroft: Why all medical students need an education in health economics
How do doctors manage conversations with patients about the availability (or often non-availability) of certain drugs or treatments within the NHS? In most consultations, the patient’s questions around their illness and treatment can usually be answered by drawing on a combination of medical training, formal guidelines, and clinical experience. However, few doctors will have received […]
David Zigmond: Can we reduce childhood sepsis by more vigilant management? I doubt it
Recently the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said “I am determined we blaze a trail across the world in developing a truly safe healthcare system with airline levels of safety.” (Economist Radio, 28/1/16) He was commenting on the death of a child from sepsis: a condition often of shocking inexorability. His muscular soundbite was bound to […]
David Oliver: If you want to explain what’s happening in the NHS, just look at schools and teachers
Imagine you are a teacher or headteacher in a good enough local authority school in an area with its fair share of deprivation and a shrinking funding envelope. The school increasingly struggles to balance its books, yet it’s told to make further savings. You are experienced and good at your job. You chose and trained […]
Richard Smith: Putting the H back into the NHS
The H in NHS stands not for hospital or healthcare but health, and the NHS needs to do better at promoting health, said Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, this week at a meeting organised by the University of Southampton. If England can’t do better at prevention then the NHS will be overwhelmed, said […]
Saurabh Jha: Britain’s junior doctors are not apprentices
It was Boxing Day weekend. The consultant surgeon summoned the on-call team. “We face a calamity,” he said. The house officer had called in sick. The locum wasn’t going to arrive for another 12 hours. This meant that I, the senior house officer, would have to be the house officer. The registrar would take my […]