Hunt's death rates rationale refuted
The number of people dying in hospitals over the weekend is lower than during the week, according to a new study — contradicting the Government’s justification for imposing the junior doctors’ contract.
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has said the new contract, which has led to industrial action on five occasions, needs to be forced through because high death rates at weekends are linked to lower staffing levels.
Mr Hunt has often cited a British Medical Journal study, co-authored by NHS England medical director Sir Bruce Keogh, as evidence to support his policy, but those assertions have been challenged by ...
Source: BMA News - May 6, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
General practice faces spiralling crisis, study shows
General practice needs more investment, practical support to improve ways of working and a better understanding of what is driving increased demand — or the service could collapse.
Research from the King’s Fund exposes the spiralling crisis in primary care with the number of consultations having increased by 15 per cent over the past five years.
The size of the workforce has not met the increased demand, rising by just 5 per cent in the same time period, with doctors retiring earlier and in greater numbers and just one in 10 trainee GPs seeing themselves working in primary care full time five years from now.
Th...
Source: BMA News - May 6, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Imposition will be 'final straw' for juniors, doctors hear
The imposition of the junior doctors’ contract will be the ‘final straw’ for many exhausted doctors, Royal College of Physicians president Jane Dacre told a BMA special representative meeting.
Professor Dacre said morale was already near rock bottom owing to intense workload, but that it was growing worse.
She said at the meeting in London on Tuesday 3 May: ‘Staff are being stretched beyond reason to care for far too many patients, there is little quarter given to career planning and life outside medicine and, last but not least, the spectre of having to provide a seven-day service in the fut...
Source: BMA News - May 6, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
NHS 'needs our hope and effort'
BMA council chair Mark Porter (pictured) has called on doctors to unite in the face of spiralling demand, shrinking resource and a growing recruitment and morale crisis.
In a speech to the BMA special representative meeting on Tuesday 3 May Dr Porter said colleagues owed it to patients and themselves to ‘rise above the many provocations’ and take the NHS forward.
The SRM was called to address the crisis in morale and workforce, and to propose solutions.
It addressed issues including the £22bn funding gap anticipated for the NHS in England, and the crisis in morale, recruitment and retention across...
Source: BMA News - May 5, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
'Passion and commitment' needed to solve NHS crisis
Doctors must ignore the point-scoring approach of politicians and use their passion and commitment to tackle the crisis facing the NHS.
BMA representative body deputy chair Anthea Mowat (pictured) made the rallying call during her closing remarks to last week’s BMA SRM (special representative meeting).
Praising colleagues for their inspiration and ideas on the challenges facing the health service, she told the SRM that far from being ‘road blocks’ to progress and reform, doctors were ‘passionately committed to building a better health service’.
She said: ‘Many of the solutions I’ve...
Source: BMA News - May 5, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Fall in demand for training places
The number of UK medical students ready to fill vacant junior doctor training places has fallen by more than 300 — leaving a potential black hole in NHS staffing.
The UK Foundation Programme, a two-year medical training programme bridging the gap between medical school and specialist training, usually plans to need around 200 extra students on the reserve list owing to initial applicants dropping out withdrawing or failing exams.
At this time last year the reserve list to fill those slots was made up of 352 medical students — leaving the places oversubscribed — but that number is now just 45.
It means the...
Source: BMA News - May 5, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
BMA agrees to restart contract talks
The BMA has agreed to return to negotiations with the Government on the junior doctors’ contract — and has called for a deal which could ‘break the impasse’.
The association immediately accepted the AoMRC's (Academy of Medical Royal Colleges) plea for a five-day break, which means the Government will pause the introduction of the contract while outstanding issues are discussed.
The Department of Health initially appeared to refuse the offer — suggesting that the contract must go ahead — but has now agreed to return to talks, which are planned to resume on Monday.
BMA junior doctors commi...
Source: BMA News - May 5, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Public health doctors urged to confront political challenges
Public health doctors must speak out on the political challenges to healthcare or risk becoming irrelevant, a conference has heard.
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine professor of European public health Martin McKee said that the profession must not shy away from tackling Government economic policies that negatively impact public health.
Professor McKee made the points during the annual Sandy Macara (pictured) memorial address at this year’s public health medicine conference on 4 May on what would have been Sir Sandy’s birthday and in front of an audience that included Lady Sylvia Macara and members...
Source: BMA News - May 4, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Prove contract’s equality, DH told
The junior doctors’ contract could break the UK’s international obligations on equality, the statutory body responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination laws has warned.
The EHRC (Equality and Human Rights Commission), which promotes and enforces legislation such as the Sex Discrimination Act, says the Department of Health ‘does not appear to have explicitly considered the impact of the contract on the right to just and favourable working’ under a UN international convention.
The ICESCR (International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), adopted by the UN General Assembly in the...
Source: BMA News - May 4, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
How to cope with 'rocketing' indemnity premiums
The BMA has issued guidance about medical indemnity in a bid to help GPs cope with spiralling costs.
The association has worked with the medical defence organisations to produce a report which outlines what exactly indemnity is, what options are available to GPs and why the cost of premiums is rocketing.
The report also considers possible solutions, including indemnity premiums for GPs being covered by the NHS.
It says the number of claims being made against doctors is rising every year, with an annual claims inflation of around 10 per cent and £5m pay-outs no longer being out of the ordinary.
Peter Holden, a GP in ...
Source: BMA News - May 4, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
BMA council chair: 'Rise above provocations'
BMA council chair Mark Porter has called on doctors to remain united and focused on achieving positive change, in a rousing speech to the 2016 special representative meeting.
Dr Porter (pictured above, far left) urged all members of his profession not to lose hope or determination in the struggle for a stronger health service, in an impassioned address to the BMA SRM today.
He added that doctors owed it not only to themselves but to patients to ‘rise above the many provocations’ in order to take the NHS forward.
He said: ‘We must believe that we can make British medicine better and our health service bett...
Source: BMA News - May 3, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
BMA Q and A: leadership and autonomy
BMA SAS committee chair Amit Kochhar answers your questions
What are you looking forward to at the BMA SAS (staff, associate specialists and specialty doctors) annual conference in May?
The theme of our conference this year will be leadership and autonomy. We want to use the opportunity to encourage SAS doctors to make use of their leadership skills and, equally important, to consider ways that we can encourage employers to facilitate autonomous working.
We will hear from two high-profile speakers — GMC chair Terence Stephenson and King’s Fund director of leadership development Vijaya Nath, who will both be ta...
Source: BMA News - May 3, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Call for action on promised GP funding
The Government must take action to ensure that promised funding for GP practices is delivered ‘as quickly as possible’.
That is the message from BMA GPC deputy chair Richard Vautrey, pictured, as new NHS figures show the number of GPs working in primary care is decreasing, despite a relentless surge in demand.
The HSCIC (Health and Social Care Information Centre) has revealed that the number of full-time equivalent GPs, excluding locums, working in primary care in England is thought to have decreased from just over 34,700 in 2014 to 34,055 in 2016.
The numbers equate to a 1.9 per cent drop in the number of GPs...
Source: BMA News - April 29, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Priced out of medicine
Rising demand for services, a blame culture and a recruitment crisis have fuelled soaring indemnity premiums for doctors who simply want to practise medicine and are doing so in a complex and demanding environment. For how long can costs spiral out of control?
Practising in a perfect storm of slumping resource, rocketing demand and a vast recruitment crisis seems like a tough enough task for GPs.
But on top of the relentless strain, doctors are being hit by a rapid rise in medical negligence claims, which means indemnity premiums have rocketed — and concerns that the compensation culture could impact on patient...
Source: BMA News - April 29, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Scottish GP workforce faces 'severe difficulties'
Doctors leaders in Scotland have warned that general practice is facing severe workforce problems after a survey revealed that almost 60 per cent of GPs were planning to leave or cut their hours.
The survey, carried out by ComRes for the Royal College of General Practitioners (Scotland), found that nearly nine in 10 of those questioned felt that lack of resources was putting patients at risk.
Meanwhile, 77 per cent said they worried about missing something serious with a patient because of their workload.
The findings were released in the last week of campaigning before the Scottish Parliament elections on 5 May.
BMA Scott...
Source: BMA News - April 29, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
