Over 100,000 people a year have an episode of sepsis at a cost of around 35,000 lives, more than bowel and breast cancer combined. Sepsis is the third highest cause of death in hospitals and one of the commonest causes of death in pregnancy. As a result of advances in medicine we are living longer. […]
The African Journal Partnership Project: Raising the visibility of African medical publishing and research
For the past 11 years, the African Journal Partnership Project (AJPP) has paired leading medical journals in the UK and the US with counterparts in Africa, aiming to foster the development of medical publishing in the African continent so that valuable African health and medical research is available to a wider international audience. The project […]
The BMJ Today: Weekend access to GPs, gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, and leaving training
• Weekend access to GPs A half of the members of the public think that providing weekend access to GPs should be a priority for the NHS, a YouGov poll has shown. Of 2052 adults who responded to the survey, 54% said that the NHS should make provision of access to GPs at weekends a […]
Iris van der Heide: We need policies to target integrated care for people with multimorbidities in Europe
The ICARE4EU project wants to improve the care of people suffering from multiple chronic conditions. It will describe, analyze, and identify innovative integrated care programmes for people with multimorbidity in 31 European countries, and aims to contribute to more effective implementation of such programmes. During the project (from 2013 to mid 2016), members of the […]
Tushar Garg: India’s medical curricula are abetting outdated constructions of gender and sexuality
Recently, India Today exposed licensed medical practitioners in New Delhi offering conversion therapy to cure homosexuality. It is a sad reflection on the contemporary awareness of gender and sexuality that such quackery is still being practised with impunity. The Pan American Health Organization has stated that such therapies lack medical justification and “constitute a violation […]
Natika H Halil on providing emergency contraception to under 16s
Recently the UK’s press went into overdrive reporting on the recent change in emergency contraceptive pill ellaOne’s product licence—now available to buy over the counter for women of “all reproductive ages,” and therefore including under 16s. Of course levonorgestrel was already available to under 16s in pharmacies in many areas through patient group directions. In […]
The BMJ Today: GPs reject inspections, China rejects sofosbuvir patent, but let’s act on climate change
• Suspend inspections of GP surgeries The BMA and the Royal College of General Practitioners have both come out with strong reactions to the inspections of GP surgeries by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which has been beset by problems since it started last November. At the BMA’s annual representative meeting in Liverpool, delegates voted […]
Amy Price and Marilyn Mann on the pros of patient peer review
Without peer review The BMJ could not survive. The journal uses reviewers to help assess the quality and usefulness of about 8000 papers per year. In early 2014, as one of a number of changes designed to make the journal more patient-centered, The BMJ announced that it would recruit patients to […]
David Eedy: What lessons can be learned from the collapse of dermatology services in Nottingham?
The independent investigation into the near collapse of the acute and paediatric dermatology service in Nottingham has called the process an “unmitigated disaster.” This collapse was foreseeable and avoidable, and in the aftermath of the report it is important that clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), trusts, and private providers nationally take on-board what went wrong to […]
The BMJ Today: Cancer, climate, and dementia
• Cancer diagnosis The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has released new guidelines to try to speed up the diagnosis of cancer. They recommend that all GPs should have direct access (without referral) to magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography, upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, colonoscopy, and occult blood screening. At present, only some […]