CQC: callous, quarrelsome, crude
It was a bittersweet victory for Dominique Thompson the day the CQC (Care Quality Commission) admitted it was wrong.
Her GP practice did not ‘require improvement’, as inspectors had originally reported. It was in fact ‘good with some outstanding elements’. The regulator was sorry for any anxiety caused.
After months of sleepless nights, endless paperwork and growing outrage, the letter Dr Thompson received last September brought some relief. But the anxiety caused had certainly been considerable.
Back in March last year, she was a confident GP at the helm of the award-winning Bristol Univers...
Source: BMA News - March 17, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
E-cigarette ban failure 'bitterly disappointing'
A ban on e-cigarettes in public places in Wales has failed to be passed, in a move branded 'bitterly disappointing' by doctors leaders.
Welsh Assembly members have failed to enact the Public Health (Wales) Bill, a major piece of legislation that would have seen e-cigarettes banned from schools, public transport and from places where food is sold, as well as a raft of other measures.
The bill had been expected to pass with the support of some Plaid AMs, but the party decided to vote against it at the last minute.
It was the final day for the bill to be considered by the Assembly before the election.
BMA Cymru Wales...
Source: BMA News - March 17, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Northern Ireland GPs consider mass undated resignations
GPs in Northern Ireland will be canvassed about the possibility of submitting mass undated resignations if the Government fails to negotiate a rescue package for the profession within six months.
The decision by the Northern Ireland local medical committees conference follows a similar one made by an emergency meeting of UK GPs convened in February to discuss the crisis in the profession.
It comes as primary care in Northern Ireland faces unprecedented pressures, with 20 practices predicted to close in the coming year due to chronic underinvestment, an ageing workforce and an insufficient number of GP training...
Source: BMA News - March 17, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
‘Relief’ for general practice in Scotland
GP leaders have given a cautious welcome to a package of measures to provide ‘immediate relief’ to general practice across Scotland.
Health, well-being and sport secretary Shona Robison told the Scottish local medical committees conference last week that the investment — amounting to £20m — would address short-term pressures on GPs and practice staff.
Ms Robison also said she recognised that long-term change was needed and that she was working with the BMA Scotland GPs committee to achieve this.
The announcement came less than two hours after SGPC chair Alan McDevitt warned that practic...
Source: BMA News - March 17, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
NHS funding absent from budget
Political rhetoric has ignored the reality of an NHS facing ‘breaking point’, warned the BMA after today’s budget gave no mention of further funding.
Chancellor George Osborne (pictured) made no reference to additional NHS funding in his budget speech, despite continuing warnings from the medical profession that rising demand and lack of resources threaten to cripple the health service.
BMA council chair Mark Porter, who recently accused the Government of leaving the NHS to sort out the £30bn financial shortfall it will face by 2020, said promises on funding had failed to materialise.
He said...
Source: BMA News - March 16, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Changes to immigration rules welcomed
Medical students on UK visas will no longer have to prove they have thousands of pounds in the bank to take up their first jobs as doctors.
Changes to the immigration rules have been made after the BMA raised concerns with the Government over the impact of an existing clause on medical training for postgraduate doctors.
Students applying for an extension to a Tier 4 (general) visa to take up a foundation programme place would previously have had to prove they had nine months’ worth of living expenses in their bank accounts.
But they will now have to show evidence of up to two months’ costs after the Government ...
Source: BMA News - March 16, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Accept foundation programme offers in fight for NHS
Medical students should take up foundation programme offers in order to join and fight for the NHS.
The BMA is advising students to accept programme offers after a number of concerns were raised about whether doing so risked giving consent to a potential imposed new contract or undermining current junior doctors opposing the proposed changes.
In an email to students this week [15 March], BMA medical students committee co-chairs Harrison Carter and Charlie Bell said that students should not be deterred from pursuing a programme place.
‘We strongly recommend that students accept their foundation programme offer...
Source: BMA News - March 15, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Call for honesty over cuts
The Government cannot cut its way to increased investment in the NHS and must be more transparent over funding, the BMA is warning.
NHS spending increases are being made by making cuts to wider health budgets in moves that will not address the £30bn shortfall expected to face NHS England by 2020, the association says.
The analysis is part of a BMA paper on NHS funding and efficiency, which evaluates recent Government commitments to achieve greater investment in healthcare through increased efficiency.
BMA council chair Mark Porter (pictured) said that only £8bn out of the £10bn investment in NHS En...
Source: BMA News - March 15, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
GP practices need 'cost-effective' model
A ‘cost-effective’ model is needed to protect Welsh general practice, the BMA has said, as it published a map of closed and at-risk practices.
BMA Cymru Wales has called on the Welsh Government to commit to the traditional, independent contractor model where GPs contract their services to the NHS but are not employed by it.
The association map shows 10 GP practices that have been taken over by a local health board and two that have shut.
There are a further eight practices ‘at risk’, with two of these in North Wales already having handed in their notice to quit next year.
Challenging...
Source: BMA News - March 15, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
General practice in crisis, conference told
General practice is in crisis in Northern Ireland with more than 20 practices at risk of closing within the next year.
The stark prediction was made by chair of Northern Ireland GPs committee Tom Black during his address to the 2016 local medical committees conference in County Down at the weekend.
Dr Black said general practice needed ‘greater funding and an increased workforce to meet the increasing demands and needs of the public’.
He added: ‘We have the lowest number of GPs, the lowest funding and the highest workload of the four UK countries.
‘We have practices closing, merging, struggling to s...
Source: BMA News - March 15, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Training needed to meet patients' end-of-life care needs
Improvements to training and support are crucial if doctors are to be able to meet patients’ end-of-life care needs, the BMA has concluded.
The association is calling for enhanced training in communication for doctors treating patients nearing the end of their lives in the third volume of its report into end-of-life care and physician-assisted dying.
BMA representative body chair Ian Wilson, who is also chair of the project and steering group, says the report’s research had revealed ‘a clear desire amongst doctors’ for greater support and training.
Writing in the report’s foreword, he says tha...
Source: BMA News - March 14, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
GPs near breaking point
Primary care faces demands it is struggling to meet while the Government fails to resource it fairly. Add ‘outdated and cramped’ conditions and a picture soon emerges of a specialty at breaking point. In response, the BMA is highlighting areas ripe for improvement that could save general practice from collapse. Neil Hallows reports
In general practice, they talk about a ‘John Wayne’ contract, and they’re not trying to be macho.
‘A GP’s gotta do, what a GP’s gotta do,’ is not, or not just, a tribute to the variety and resourcefulness of general practice, even though it ...
Source: BMA News - March 11, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Consultants show solidarity with juniors
Since the beginning of the dispute over junior contracts last autumn, doctors from across the profession have continued to show their support and solidarity.
Consultants, along with their colleagues in general practice and the staff, associate specialist and specialty doctor grades, have consistently backed their junior colleagues in their bid to make the Government listen to concerns over a potential new contract.
With the start of 48 hours of action yesterday, consultants found themselves stepping up to fill in for those out on the picket lines (pictured), with a number giving their take on the day.
Consultant gas...
Source: BMA News - March 10, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Life-saving skills demonstrated during industrial action
Doctors involved in this week’s industrial action took time out to pass on some of their clinical skills through a series of nationwide life-saving courses.
Dozens of junior doctors attended the events across England, demonstrating basic emergency aid techniques such as CPR to parents and children, as 48 hours of industrial action got under way.
The sessions were set up as part of the #littlelifesavers online campaign organised by Oxford specialty trainee 2 in infectious diseases Rachel Clarke.
Dr Clarke has been one of the most prominent junior doctors to speak out against the Government’s attempts to impose a...
Source: BMA News - March 10, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Show of solidarity through blood donation
A donation session for doctors taking part in industrial action has given new meaning to the idea of shedding blood, sweat and tears for your profession.
The event, which took place at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge yesterday, saw up to a dozen junior doctors giving blood in a show of positive action for patients and the health service.
The event which was organised by a group of junior doctors, including specialty trainee in clinical oncology Sara Lightowlers (pictured), was designed to provide doctors taking action an opportunity to make a contribution to healthcare.
She said: ‘I used to donate blood re...
Source: BMA News - March 10, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
