Doctors quiz candidates ahead of 5 May elections
Candidates from four of the main political parties in Northern Ireland put themselves forward for tough questioning by BMA members at a pre-election health and social care debate in Belfast.
Meaningful and timely action on changing the health and social care infrastructure, the absence of proper medical workforce planning and the need for cross-departmental input into public health were among the areas on which candidates were questioned at the event, which was held ahead of the Northern Ireland assembly elections on 5 May.
The event was attended by doctors from all branches of practice and local medical students.
S...
Source: BMA News - April 15, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
BMA calls SRM to discuss NHS crisis
An emergency conference to address the crises of funding, staffing and morale facing the health service is set to take place next month.
The BMA is urging doctors to attend a special representatives meeting on 3 May, amid mounting financial and workforce pressures that threaten to undermine doctors, patient safety and the NHS.
BMA council chair Mark Porter (pictured) said that the extraordinary meeting was in response to the ongoing and ‘unprecedented’ pressures facing healthcare, adding that he hoped the occasion would be an opportunity for the medical community to discuss its concerns.
He said: ‘Doctors...
Source: BMA News - April 13, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
GMC produces new cosmetic surgery guidelines
Doctors carrying out cosmetic treatments will face a new set of ethical and safety guidelines from 1 June, the GMC has announced.
The GMC has published new guidance covering both surgical and non-surgical procedures, such as breast augmentation and Botox, with the aim of improving patient safety.
The guidance is based upon a review of cosmetic treatments by NHS England national medical director Sir Bruce Keogh and will apply to all doctors across the UK.
In the introduction to its guidance, the GMC notes that cosmetic treatments have, in recent years, moved from being a niche market in medicine to one that is now p...
Source: BMA News - April 13, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Government 'wholly responsible' for future industrial action
The Government will bear responsibility for future industrial action by continuing to refuse to return to talks over the junior doctors contract, the BMA said.
The warning comes after a story published by the BBC claiming that ministers will not back down over contract imposition.
BMA junior doctors committee chair Johann Malawana has criticised the Government’s stance, saying that by rejecting a return to the negotiating table ministers would be ‘wholly responsible’ for any future industrial action.
He added: ‘If the Government thinks that by sticking its head in the sand this dispute will e...
Source: BMA News - April 8, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Good Samaritan doctors come forward after appeal
Two doctors have stepped forward after a patient’s appeal for the people who helped save his life.
As David Cowpe recovered from a serious motorcycle accident, he was determined to track down everyone who had been involved in his care.
He spoke to the police, to air ambulance medics and to staff at the Royal London Hospital where he was treated, but he was determined to find the two Good Samaritan doctors who had helped him at the scene.
An appeal was placed on London’s Air Ambulance website, and then BMA Communities and days later, the doctors emerged.
Specialty trainee 4 in anaesthetics Stephen Barret...
Source: BMA News - April 8, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Juniors' contract: the accidental activist
Since qualifying four years ago, junior doctor Aoife Abbey has learned that she is a vital part of the NHS. She is not going to let a punitive contract the Government wants to impose squash the life out of her. Caroline Winter-Jones reports
'I never thought I would be protesting for something that I have taken for granted like fair pay,’ says intensive care trainee Aoife Abbey.
Driven to marching in the streets of London, along with 20,000 other doctors in October, the Worcestershire-based specialty trainee 3 says she never expected to find herself part of the movement that the junior doctor cause has become.
Raisin...
Source: BMA News - April 8, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Sock marks and suspected sickies
Research shows that many GPs find their workload unmanageable, with inappropriate referrals from other agencies and patients attending for trivial reasons. Caroline Winter-Jones reports
'Doctor, my six-year-old is peeing a lot. I’m giving him four times the recommended dose of a supplement I got on the internet — it has frequent peeing listed as a side-effect — do you think I should stop it?’
These few lines amount to one of the biggest challenges facing general practice today — what is a GP really for?
This is just one example sent to us in response to a BMA News request to GPs.
It is to th...
Source: BMA News - April 8, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
CQC: combative, querulous, crushing
The CQC brings ‘fear and panic’, and can push primary care staff to consider resignation — even when the eventual outcome is positive. Continuing our investigation into the dire impact of a CQC inspection, GPs who have undergone the ordeal explain why the system needs urgent reform
Splashed across the front page of the Shropshire Star was a story to strike fear into the hearts of patients.
‘Nearly one in six GP surgeries in Shropshire are to be fast-tracked for new Government inspections next year after concerns emerged about patient care,’ it begins.
Below was a list of 11 practices that had...
Source: BMA News - April 7, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
BMA Q and A: public health registrars, on-call work and consultants contract talks
BMA public health medicine committee chair Iain Kennedy answers your questions
What does the imposed junior doctors contract mean for public health registrars?
The Government has said it will impose a new contract on junior doctors, including medically qualified public health registrars, from August.
There are some specific impacts for public health registrars. The first is that the contractual requirement for an MSc in public health has been removed.
This is a vital component for registrars to gain essential public health skills and could be lost if it is no longer provided.
Basic pay for some registrars will increase...
Source: BMA News - April 7, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Junior doctors 'played major part in my survival'
Two doctors have stepped forward after a patient’s appeal for the people who helped save his life.
As David Cowpe recovered from a serious motorcycle accident, he was determined to track down everyone who had been involved in his care.
He spoke to the police, to air ambulance medics and to staff at the Royal London Hospital where he was treated, but he was determined to find the two Good Samaritan doctors who had helped him at the scene.
An appeal was placed on London’s Air Ambulance website, and then BMA Communities and days later, the doctors emerged.
Specialty trainee 4 in anaesthetics Stephen Barret...
Source: BMA News - April 7, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
SUIs need further investigation, says BMA
The number of SUIs (serious untoward incidents) in Welsh hospitals has increased by 128 per cent in the past three years, figures obtained by the Conservatives have revealed.
In 2014/15, the number of incidents that resulted in severe harm or avoidable deaths to patients was 945. In 2011/12 the figure was 414.
BMA Cymru Wales has questioned what the figures represent and has called for further investigation.
The Conservatives have used the figures to repeat their call for a Keogh-style inquiry.
Darren Millar conservative shadow health minister, said: ‘One avoidable death is one too many and the alarming rate a...
Source: BMA News - April 7, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Consultant anaesthetist wins clinical teacher of the year award
A consultant anaesthetist from North Wales has been named clinical teacher of the year by BMA Cymru Wales and BMJ Learning.
Harsha Reddy (pictured above, right) was announced as the top clinical tutor at an awards ceremony held at Cardiff's Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, on March 29.
Mr Reddy, who is an educational supervisor and college tutor in intensive care medicine, said: ‘I am incredibly honoured.
'It is a testament to our trainees who are a great bunch of people and all are benefiting from what we are doing. It is nice to be thought of.’
Clinical teachers from Cardiff and Swansea universities a...
Source: BMA News - April 7, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
‘Classic all-rounder’ wins BMA Wales award
A medical school student from Gwynedd has been named the recipient of the BMA Cymru Wales Sherman Foundation Fund award.
Now in her second year at Cardiff School of Medicine, Rhiannon Murphy-Jones won £500 to go towards supporting her in her studies, as well as membership of the BMA while she is a student.
Described by the Sherman Fund judges as a ‘classic all-rounder’, Rhiannon just missed out on the A level grades needed to study medicine and instead took up a place on a three-year feeder degree course at the University of South Wales.
Throughout her studies she found the time to travel back and...
Source: BMA News - April 7, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Call for rethink on four-hour target
Doctors’ leaders have said it might be time to review the four-hour target to see patients in Welsh emergency medicine departments.
According to the latest performance statistics, 77.2 per cent of patients were seen or discharged from Welsh emergency medicine departments within four hours. The target is 95 per cent.
The figures show that this year saw the busiest February for emergency medicine departments since records began in 2006, with 2,689 patients seen.
Phil Banfield (pictured), chair of the BMA Welsh council, said: ‘BMA Cymru Wales has long advocated the use of targets that are clinically meaning...
Source: BMA News - April 7, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Support for industrial action holds firm
The fourth period of industrial action for junior doctors in England has begun, with support from the public holding strong.
A YouGov survey has found 59 per cent of people support industrial action, with junior doctors providing emergency cover, with 23 per cent opposed.
A question as to whether doctors were right to take the action found a majority in favour, with findings similar to those in previous surveys carried out during other periods of industrial action.
And more than five times the number of people thought the Government, rather than the BMA, was most to blame for the dispute — 48 per cent versus 9 per c...
Source: BMA News - April 6, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
