Under the white coat
This is a story that I didn’t notice when it happened. Beckman Coulter has bought Olympus Diagnostics. Further coverage can be found here, here, here and from Beckman Coulter here. Seems the story broke in Feburary. Shows that my finger isn’t on the pulse!!!
I saw an interesting piece on the BBC news site. It talked about a report from the Royal College of Surgeons that suggests that the 48 hour per week work limit for doctors is potentially damaging patient care. The original report can be found here.
Whilst the report does contain some valid points e.g. continuity of care being lost, these points are not incompatible with a 48 hour limit. They are incompatible with a 48 hour limit and getting no extra staff to manage the shortfall. The problems discussed in the report can all be handled if the shortfall in hours is plugged by a similar increase in staff. I accept the training issues involved in getting these extra people to a required standard by the European Working Time Regulations have been a long time coming and the underlying training issues could have been addressed by now if action had been taken earlier.
The NHS IT project for computerised records has hit yet more problems. It seems that any IT project will have problems but this project has been hit more than most. Only the air traffic control centre at Swanwick seems to be worse
Copyright © 2010 Lab Rat or Button Monkey? All rights reserved. Theme by Laptop Geek.