Off the record: mutual recognition of professional qualifications
The BMA has pushed hard to defend the free movement of professionals while securing the highest possible standards in quality of care and patient safety, writes the association's EU policy manager Paul Laffin
Approximately one in 10 doctors working in the UK — about 30,000 — received their primary medical qualification in another EEA (European Economic Area) state.
This makes the EU’s Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications Directive a fairly significant piece of legislation for the NHS and the BMA.
Indeed, currently more than 8,000 BMA members are from other EEA states, with more than 2,...
Source: BMA News - February 2, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
BMA Q and A: priorities, the patient symposium and the junior doctors dispute
BMA patient liaison group chair Catherine Macadam answers your questions
What are the BMA patient liaison group’s priorities for the year ahead?
This year, the PLG is focusing on two main areas of work around patient engagement.
In October, we hosted a meeting on self-care and health literacy for children and young people.
At this event, young people told us what they would like doctors to do differently to help them be more engaged with, and better able to manage, their own health.
We are also continuing to monitor the development of emerging new models of care, including the devolution and integration of...
Source: BMA News - February 2, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Junior doctors press ahead with industrial action
Junior doctors in England will take a second day of action after contract talks ended without agreement.
Action will take place from 8am on Wednesday 10 February to 8am on Thursday 11 February, with junior doctors providing only emergency care during this period.
Trusts across England have been informed of this change to the originally planned action, which would have seen the first-ever full walkout with no care provided by junior doctors.
The decision comes after talks between the BMA, NHS Employers and the Department of Health were unable to reach an agreement on the issue of unsocial hours.
Originally planned as a fu...
Source: BMA News - February 1, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
GPs consider undated resignations
GPs will be asked if they are willing to submit undated resignations from NHS contracts - if talks on a rescue package for the profession are not successfully concluded in six months.
The decision to canvass opinion was made at a special local medical committees conference convened to discuss solutions for the growing crisis in general practice.
GPs at the conference in London also agreed that consideration should be given to the profession being balloted on what work or services they should cease to reduce workload and ensure safe and sustainable patient care.
Dozens of GPs spoke out about the pressures facing them...
Source: BMA News - January 30, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Call to block CQC regulation
GPs should campaign to abolish the regulation of their profession by the CQC (Care Quality Commission), a special conference agreed.
Hundreds of GPs gathering in London today attacked the system of practice inspections run by the CQC and said urgent reform was needed.
The special local medical committees conference suggested an alternative quality-assurance scheme, which would be peer-led and based on a criteria that would improve patient care and safety.
GPs also urged the BMA GPs committee to explore all options in which practices can ‘lawfully withdraw from engaging’ with the CQC.
'Very ...
Source: BMA News - January 30, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Minimum alcohol pricing delayed for further evidence
Scottish courts have agreed to accept further evidence before making the final decision over whether Scotland can legally introduced a minimum price for alcohol.
The inner house of the court of session met last week to consider the recent ruling of the European court of justice, and decided to hear more material. The final hearing will provisionally be June.
Legislation to introduce minimum pricing was passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2012, but the SWA (Scotch Whisky Association), which represents the industry, challenged it in the Scottish and European courts, saying it was an inappropriate restriction of trade and wo...
Source: BMA News - January 29, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
GPs leader: fightback to save profession starts today
The great fightback of general practice begins today with a clarion call to rescue the profession from a ‘state of emergency’.
BMA GPs committee chair Chaand Nagpaul (pictured) made the rallying statement in his speech to a special local medical committees conference today, convened to discuss the growing crisis in general practice.
Dr Nagpaul said: ‘This conference demands an end to the pretence that all is well on the road to recovery. It’s not.
'Patients are being short-changed on a daily basis, with nine in 10 GPs stating that workload pressures are damaging quality care to patients.
'This is...
Source: BMA News - January 29, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Setback on 'soft opt-out' organ donation
The fight must continue to change the system around organ donation, the BMA said after a setback in the Scottish Parliament.
A private member’s bill that would introduce an ‘opt-out’ system to Scotland has not received the backing of the cross-party health and sport committee.
In its stage one report on the Transplantation (Authorisation of Removal of Organs etc) (Scotland) Bill, the majority of committee members said they could not support the bill at this time.
BMA Scotland council member Sue Robertson, who is an associate specialist in renal medicine in Dumfries, said it was disappointing &mdash...
Source: BMA News - January 29, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Boost for GP trainee numbers
GP training posts in Northern Ireland are to be boosted by a third following sustained lobbying by the BMA.
BMA Northern Ireland described the additional 20 places — bringing the total annual number to 85 — as a ‘positive step’ towards alleviating the pressures on general practice.
The Northern Ireland Government has described the £1.2m per year boost as the ‘biggest investment in GP training in 10 years’.
NI GPs committee chair Tom Black said that he hoped the announcement by the health minister today would be the first of other increases to GP training numbers.
Dr Black sa...
Source: BMA News - January 28, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Keep on top of records, students told
Medical students in England and Wales are reminded to keep an eye on the status of their record checks for clinical placements.
Students need a valid DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) certificate to cover all work in NHS hospitals and GP practices.
The BMA medical students committee has been alerted to cases in which students have taken a year out and returned to third-year clinical placements unaware that their certificates were out of date.
Although there is no official expiry date on DBS checks — formerly the Criminal Records Bureau — individual organisations or employers generally require they ar...
Source: BMA News - January 28, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Be part of the BMA's ruling body
Members who want to serve on BMA council have until 4pm on 5 February to submit their nominations for one of 18 available seats for the 2016/17 and 2017/18 terms of office.
Nominations, which opened on 7 January, will be drawn from a total of 10 national electoral zones including all parts of England as well as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and from across 11 branches of practice including:
Academics
Armed forces
Consultants
General practice
Junior doctors
Occupational medicine
Public health medicine
Staff associate specialists and specialty doctors
Medical students
O...
Source: BMA News - January 27, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
BMA combats plans to cut doctor posts
Plans to change on-call working arrangements and reduce consultant and SAS doctor posts in England health protection teams are being opposed by the BMA and Public Health England’s local negotiating committee.
The proposals come in a PHE consultation on health protection funding that outlines plans to reduce the number of consultants and remove posts held by staff, associate specialist and specialty doctors.
In its response, the LNC says that while it accepts the need for more efficient use of funding, it has great reservations about reductions in staff and, in particular, the apparent singling out of SAS staff...
Source: BMA News - January 26, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Variable progress in transfer of care
The number of patients waiting to be transferred out of hospital in Wales has fallen for the third month in a row, latest statistics reveal.
In December last year, 435 people experienced a delayed transfer of care — with more than half of patients held up because of delays in finalising their care package.
The Wales Government has announced £2.5m in funding to help to alleviate delayed transfers of care.
BMA Cymru Wales council chair Phil Banfield said the falling figures should be welcomed but members were reporting that the situation remained ‘dire in many areas’.
‘What needs to be done much...
Source: BMA News - January 26, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Call to reform Care Quality Commission
Nine in 10 GP practices believe inspection ratings are too simplistic or misleading to measure quality of care accurately, a BMA survey reveals.
Around 80 per cent of practices in England also say the CQC (Care Quality Commission) system of checking their services takes GPs away from patients and increases doctors’ stress levels.
The BMA GPs committee, which ran the survey, says the findings highlight the ‘damaging, negative’ impact CQC inspections could have, which need wholesale reform.
The results were released on the eve of this weekend’s special local medical committees conference where ...
Source: BMA News - January 26, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Call to mentor would-be doctors
Doctors and medical students are being urged to help others looking to enter medicine through an online mentoring scheme.
The SMF (Social Mobility Foundation) is calling for doctors and medical students to provide one-to-one insight and support to those beginning their pathways to medical careers.
A charitable organisation, the foundation seeks to promote greater opportunities and access to students from low-income backgrounds, helping more than 1,000 students each year.
BMA medical students committee lead on widening participation Mita Dhullipala (pictured) said that mentoring had the potential to make a world of differen...
Source: BMA News - January 25, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
