Effort ***** Value for money ***** Entertainment **** Public health education ** Price: Free One of the perks of being the Clegg Scholar is that you get forwarded details of events that clash with the busy schedules of other BMJ staff. After three members of the editorial team turned down the opportunity to review a […]
Domhnall MacAuley: A visit from the GMC
Revalidation fatigue…there is so much in the news, post, and medical media that I had begun to switch off. But, Niall Dickson, from the GMC, gave us a very reassuring talk on revalidation recently and it all sounded very reasonable, sensible, and non threatening. Revalidation based on appraisal seems fair and we are well used […]
Martin McShane: Letting go
One aspect of my job that I have enjoyed over the last few years has been engaging with the public. It has never been dull. When I first arrived in Lincolnshire we did a lot of work, talking with the public and professionals about the principles we should use for commissioning services. This became a […]
Edward Davies: Call for the spin doctor—this pension strike will need the mother of all PR campaigns
This strike is not going down well. Or to quote the Daily Telegraph, this “unseemly spectacle” is not going down well. And it’s not just the Telegraph. “There is no gold left and the doctors need to recognise that this applies to them,” says The Times. “Doctors should be ashamed of themselves,” says the Independent. […]
Sarah Woolnough: Good news for research in the UK
The regulation and governance of clinical research continues to be a key discussion for the clinical research community. Last year, following increasing pressure the government and regulators began to look at ways to reform the system to support and increase the amount of research taking place in the UK. The good news is that we’re […]
Rhys Davies: 21 June—is there a medical student in the house?
Yesterday, the BMA announced the results of its members’ ballot on industrial action. Tens of thousands of doctors across different branches of medicine responded, coming out strongly in favour of industrial action. With a mandate to move forward, the BMA have scheduled a day of industrial action on 21 June. Doctors will perform only urgent […]
David Zigmond: Further NHS reforms – inevitable and unintended consequences
As the debate becomes more fraught, I want to add my voice to the fray. I have been a frontline medical practitioner for more than 40 years, and have seen recurrent waves of reform and their very mixed results. The least disputable advances are in the realms of technology and technical competence: drugs and procedures […]
Grant Hill-Cawthorne: House of Lords to be a mini House of Commons – would the Health and Social Care Bill have passed unamended?
Reform of the the House of Lords has been rumbling along for many years. Started by Tony Blair’s Labour Government, it was in the manifesto of all three main parties during the last general election, and it formed a lynchpin of the coalition arrangement between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties. Nick Clegg is personally […]
Jeremy Sare: Drug consumption offence
The debate between prohibitionists and drug reformers is often one between morality and pragmatism. Comments made last week by Bernard Hogan-Howe, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, about drug testing employees to deter use, put him firmly in the moral camp. He argued that employers have the right to impose conditions on employees’ lifestyles. Hogan-Howe was […]
Scarlett McNally on caring for a world population of 7 billion
A new hard-hitting film “Mother: caring for 7 billion” should be required viewing for all doctors, policy-makers, and other people. Its message is that the exponentially increasing world population is the major cause of poverty, over-consumption, food poverty, riots, wars, de-forestation, ill-health, major crises, conflict, and climate change. It has vignettes from biologists, medics, and […]