I believe the economy of the 21st century will be driven by the health sector. The economy of the 20th century was driven by machines which addressed human toil. The health sector can create millions of jobs for the extremely skilled, semi skilled, and unskilled workers. These jobs are vital for the stability of society. Lack […]
Martin McShane: Ch-Ch-Changes
Ch,ch,changes. The next couple of months are going to see a sea change in the management of commissioning across England. The appointments to the NHS Commissioning Board (NHSCB) sectors are being made. Appointing to these four posts will allow the wave of appointments to the local offices, to be renamed as local area teams, to be […]
Andrew Burd: Ethics and clinical trial registration
These days I do not so often have a gauntlet dispatched in my direction, but when one lands at my feet I have an irresistible urge to pick it up. By way of explanation, one of my passing pleasures is to engage in debate and discussion in the WAME list serve, a discussion forum for […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 7 May 2012
JAMA 25 Apr 2012 Vol 307 1809 Among the many virtues of JAMA, one cannot number a strong sense of the ridiculous. The poetry and medicine section is the world’s most reliable source of po-faced bad verse, this week’s example being an invective against Decadron; and the first research paper this week is a study […]
Tiago Villanueva: Cutting edge primary care in Denmark
As a locum GP, I tend to have limited contact with the permanent staff of the practices I work in, and I therefore rely almost entirely on myself to look after my professional development (there is currently no revalidation scheme for doctors in Portugal). Once a year I try to visit and shadow a prominent […]
Richard Smith: Are we too concerned with confidentiality? A fable
I am the chief medical officer of our family. I am the bridge between my family members, some of them eccentric and one of them demented, and an unforgiving health system. Many doctors—indeed, anybody familiar with the strange language and rigidities of health systems—fulfil the same role, and it gives us some useful bottom up […]
Domhnall MacAuley: The glamour of drink
Early morning and a young lad, hooded, trainers, hugs his bottle as he staggers home. Last night it started early; cider, beer, and tonic wine. Blue bags on a Friday night. Party time in the park as teenage boys and girls huddle drunken in the dusk. Monday morning, at the surgery. Mother fraught and adolescent […]
Veena Rao on addressing undernutrition in India
My previous blog was about the Indian finance minister’s 2012 budget speech, which marked a significant moment for the much awaited, much required, paradigm shift in the government’s approach to reduce undernutrition and micronutrient deficiency. An inter-sectoral strategy to address undernutrition in India, however complex it initially appears, is not that difficult to implement. Professor […]
Andrew Moscrop: Emergency training in Pakistan
Every night, every half-hour, the whistle and stick man visits. We’ve never met, but I know his work. His job is to walk the streets of our neighbourhood between sunset and sunrise, blowing a whistle and tapping a stick to keep the local security guards awake (as if the barking of automatic rifle fire was […]
Peter Lapsley: Unfairer charges
They’ve done it again! While prescription charges were abolished in Wales in 2007, Northern Ireland in 2010, and Scotland in 2011, the Department of Health in England increased them from £7.40 to £7.65 from 1 April this year. To put that into more graphic context, anyone required to pay the charges would have to find […]