Progress too slow for Scottish health vision
Change is not happening quickly enough to deliver the Scottish Government’s vision for health and social care, financial watchdogs warned today.
A report for the auditor general and Accounts Commission has blamed a lack of national leadership and clear planning for preventing the wider change needed to cope with increasing pressures.
New legislation to integrate health and social care for adults is due to come into force next month and the report notes that new approaches and innovative practice are already happening in parts of Scotland.
But it warns that new models are generally small-scale and says change is not t...
Source: BMA News - March 10, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Junior doctors reconsider their future
Junior doctors have told of the demoralising impact of the Government’s unwillingness to listen to their concerns on their working conditions.
Trainees attending a picket line at University College Hospital London (pictured) spoke of how the prospect of a contract being imposed upon them had made them consider their futures in the NHS.
The juniors were speaking on the first of two days of industrial action by trainees in England over the ongoing contract dispute.
Clinical fellow in neurology and PhD candidate Lina Carmona said: ‘I know lots of junior doctors who are not applying for training numbers for ...
Source: BMA News - March 9, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
'Utterly horrifying future' of contract plans
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has been warned that imposing a new junior contract could irrevocably damage the NHS, as thousands of junior doctors begin two days of industrial action.
In a video message created by final year medical student Hannah Barham-Brown (pictured below), Mr Hunt is warned that his contract plans will lead to an ‘utterly terrifying future’ for many in the profession.
Ms Barham-Brown, who is disabled, had been due to attend an rheumatology appointment cancelled owing to the 48 hours of action.
In her video to Mr Hunt, however, she stresses that she does not in any way blame junior do...
Source: BMA News - March 9, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
'This is not what I signed up for'
Anger, betrayal, and a drain of talent overseas — that’s what an imposed contract would mean for the junior doctors taking a third period of industrial action.
Doctors in Southampton said they were strongly committed to the NHS and its values, but those values were being put under severe threat by the Government’s plans.
Portsmouth specialty trainee 1 in radiology Mohamed Ismail said he chose to train in the NHS because he loves its ethos.
As an Irish national, who studied medicine in Sudan (where his family is from), he applied to England to get training that he believed would be excellent, in a ...
Source: BMA News - March 9, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Junior doctors resume industrial action
Thousands of junior doctors in England are taking a third period of industrial action today over the Government’s decision to impose an ‘unfair’ contract.
Trainees started attending picket lines from 8am this morning as the 48-hour period of action got under way.
Junior doctors are also providing training to parents in lifesaving skills and giving blood, and speaking to members of the public about the dispute at ‘meet the doctor’ events.
BMA junior doctors committee chair Johann Malawana said: ‘We deeply regret disruption to patients, but the Government has left junior doctors wit...
Source: BMA News - March 9, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Fitness to practise: shelter from the storm
The stress of being under investigation by the GMC has caused doctors to feel isolated and excluded, and has even led some to take their own lives. The GMC is taking steps to make the process less traumatic and, with the help of the BMA, is providing more support for doctors. But is it enough?
‘I think of my life in terms of the time before and the time after. I don’t think me and my family will ever be over it.’
This doctor is talking about when he was referred to the GMC.
More than a year since his case was closed, he says: ‘The episode is still very alive in my mind. It is present in eve...
Source: BMA News - March 4, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
BMA Q and A: FGM, resuscitation and armed conflict
BMA medical ethics committee chair John Chisholm answers your questions
It was the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM (female genital mutilation) this month. What role do doctors have in eradicating this practice?
Doctors have a vital role in preventing FGM and in addressing the physical and psychological needs of women and girls who have undergone FGM.
New measures were introduced last year aimed at stopping the practice, including a statutory duty to report known FGM in under-18s in England and Wales, with which doctors need to be familiar.
A helpful e-learning tool was also developed covering communication ski...
Source: BMA News - March 4, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Doctors fight for justice
Thousands of junior doctors in England are next week set to take industrial action for the third time this year over the Government’s handling of the contract dispute.
The 48-hour period of action, beginning at 8am on Wednesday 9 March, comes as the BMA is preparing to launch a judicial review into the Government’s decision to impose a contract on trainees in England.
The BMA claims the Government has failed to follow due process by not undertaking an equality impact assessment prior to its decision to force new terms and conditions on junior doctors in August.
BMA junior doctors committee chair Johann M...
Source: BMA News - March 4, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Life-saving lessons amid industrial action
Doctors will teach life-saving skills to parents during the two days of industrial action next week.
Oxford specialty trainee 2 in infectious diseases Rachel Clarke (pictured right) is appealing for doctors who can provide the training, and to parents’ groups interested in having sessions in their areas.
She has made the appeal on Twitter under the #littlelifesavers hashtag.
Dr Clarke, who tweets as @doctor_oxford, said her duty as a doctor was to join the industrial action against an unsafe, unfair contract.
‘But as a mother of two young children, as well as a junior doctor, I don’t want my strik...
Source: BMA News - March 4, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Realistic approach to medicine needed, says Scotland’s CMO
Scotland’s newly appointed chief medical officer has called for a debate among doctors about ‘realistic medicine’.
Catherine Calderwood, who took up the post last year, used her first annual report to say she wanted to engage the profession in a dialogue on the role doctors can play in shaping health services.
In her report, Dr Calderwood also acknowledges the pressures facing doctors — a statement which has been welcomed by the BMA.
However, the BMA in Scotland pointed out that rising workload impacted on doctors’ ability to respond to the needs of a changing healthcare service.
The C...
Source: BMA News - March 3, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Off the record: organ donation and overspend
The introduction of the soft opt-out organ donation system in Wales has overshadowed a budget book balancing conundrum.
Wales’ first minister Carwyn Jones was full of cheer in his New Year message to voters before leading Labour into the Assembly elections in just under four months’ time.
Boasting of his Government’s record on education, the economy and the NHS, the first minister also drew attention to the introduction of its opt-out organ donation law.
A soft opt-out on organ donation came into effect last month and is something on which BMA Cymru Wales lobbied hard.
Mr Jones said: ‘For me, one ...
Source: BMA News - March 3, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Male HPV vaccination scheme launch
Wales is to provide the HPV (human papillomavirus vaccine) to men who have sex with men, it has been announced.
The introduction of a targeted vaccination programme for men aged 16 to 45 follows sustained campaigning by the BMA for the vaccine to be given to all UK MSM (men who have sex with men), and all adolescent boys.
BMA Wales GPs committee deputy chair David Bailey said: ‘It is important to offer the HPV vaccine to gay men, and hopefully to all young men.
'Again, the Welsh Government seems to be listening to the things that we would like to see to promote public health in Wales, so well done to it.'
HPV is a ri...
Source: BMA News - March 3, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Cross-border GP plans get BMA backing
Plans to make it easier for English GPs to work in Wales are being supported by the BMA.
BMA Cymru Wales hopes the plan by the Welsh Government will help ease the recruitment issues experienced by GP practices in the nation.
As part of the plan, the Welsh Government is proposing that English GPs can be included on a health board performers list once their applications have been received, while validation checks are carried out.
GPs who have worked in England currently have to wait to take up vacancies in Wales, which has an impact on recruitment and also on GPs providing cover across the border between the two nati...
Source: BMA News - March 3, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
BMA feature stories in line for awards
A BMA feature about NHS 'brain drain' and another about trauma medicine have been shortlisted for awards.
The two articles by writer Tammy Lovell have received nominations in the Guild of Health Writers' 2016 health writing awards.
The feature, 'NHS brain drain: why the busman’s holiday?', published in August 2015, examines the stories behind the number of UK doctors who choose to work abroad.
The piece has been shortlisted for the guild’s online award.
'Frontline to frontline', published in September 2014, is competing for a trade/specialist award. It examines medical innovations developed from battle...
Source: BMA News - March 3, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Define seven-day services, say consultants
Consultants have called on the UK Government to provide a clear and workable definition of seven-day services.
The BMA consultants conference yesterday heard examples from senior doctors of the ‘excellent’ hospital weekend care already being provided under their existing terms and conditions.
However, doctors at the conference in London rejected calls to stop ongoing negotiations on a new contract for consultants in England and Northern Ireland, saying that they first needed to see the final offer from Government.
Consultants agreed that no progress was possible in the Government’s plan to expand...
Source: BMA News - March 3, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
