Lab Rat or Button Monkey? » BBC

Chlamydia screening promotion problems

dapo — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:36:25 +0000

I saw a worrying story on the BBC health site today. It concerns chlamydia screening in the UK. It seems the story is based on some research which can be found here. A provional PDF of the research can be found here (Note this link may break in the future). As the BBC article points out, chlamydia is a “silent infection”. You do not get any obvious signs of having caught the infection. With current rates are rising you would like to hope that promoting screening would be a higher proirity. It still seems that some things are still taboo.

Do Doctors hours harm patients?

dapo — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:10:24 +0000

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.

I also accept that the extra cost of employing these extra staff has to come from somewhere. In the economic climate this money will not be forth coming. If the problem of staffing had been fully addressed earlier, the budgets could have been adjusted during the better economic times and some projects delayed to reflect the increased cost of staffing. For example, the NHS IT scheme could have have been delayed whilst the staff increases worked through the system. As it stands, the NHS IT scheme has yet to produce the benefits it was portrayed as giving the NHS. (I accept that hindsight is blinding my suggestion here.)

What does dismay me with regards to the BBC article and the RCS report, is that none of the patient BENEFITS are mentioned but the 48 hour wworking limit or the other aspects of the new working time regulations. There is no mention of the errors being made from someone working the extreme long hours that were common practise before the regulations changed. The RCS report suggests that 55-60 hours per week is common place. 60 hours per week would equate to working from 9am 7.30 pm, with 30 minutes for lunch 6 days a week. Are the RCS and BBC suggesting that a person who has worked this length of shift for 6 consecutive days is just as good as they were at the start of Day 1?

I would like to think that being a surgeon would require immense amounts of skill and concentration. I would like to think that this important staff group is allowed to work the hours that allows them to perform at their maximum. I am not too sure how much of the argument is muddied by senior consultants who worked the long hours and feel everyone else has to in order to get anywhere in the profession.

Warning over blood-taking method

dapo — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:52:20 +0000

It seems that fist clenching can increase potassium levels.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7525932.stm

Hospitals ‘infested with vermin’

dapo — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:43:41 +0000

I am surprised by this report. I don’t know whether the figures are a ‘real’ disaster or part of political fighting, as the report is by the Conservative Party. I don’t know wether the figures are part of a trend or not. The figures may actually be lower than five or ten years ago, its the size the of the NHS that could make the figures look bad.

I do find it worrying about that one trust has had 1000 + incidents in two years, which is getting close to two a day.

Maggots could help in MRSA battle

dapo — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:31:01 +0000

This is an interesting use of maggots. I have heard of the use of maggots at removing dead tissue etc but to collect the secretions to use as a potential antibiotic is an interesting proposition.

The dangers of too much detox

dapo — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 14:00:12 +0000

Too much water can be a bad thing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7521137.stm

Medical abbreviations ‘pose risk’

dapo — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:46:59 +0000

I saw this page on the BBC Health page. It suggests that the use of abbreviations should be potentially phased out as it has contributed to 5% of errors in an American study, some of which were fatal. An example quoted in the article concerns the dose of insulin given to a patient. The notes had 6IU, which was interpretated as 61 units and not the actual 6 International Units. It does make for some interesting reading.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7171453.stm

BBC Health items

dapo — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 10:01:56 +0000

Been looking at the BBC Health website and found some news items which I would like to bring to your attention.

The first story is a protest about the NHS refroms. As someone who works in the NHS, I do feel that we should focus on primary role of patient care rther than all of these targets. Taking care of this will take care of the rest. If we spend time working out which patient is getting close the the 4 hour A&E limit, it means less time is spent on actually treating the patients. This links to a story about making the NHS independent, removing the political tinkering. I do have reservations as this could mean an opening for more private sector involvement. My objection to greater private sector involvement is that they will do the same job and making a profit, why can’t the public sector perform to the same standards?

My second story is about the Papworth Hospital stopping transplants due to high mortality rates. It is sad to see such famous hospital suffer like this, I take heart from the fact that are brave enough to stand up and say this is not good enough. The pressure on the hospital most have been immense, equally, the pressure on them for their success rate. It was a tough decision but I think it was the right one.

‘Advice’ could cut Caesarean rate

dapo — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 13:11:32 +0000

This article appeared on the BBC website. As an expectant father, I gave it a read and found it quite interesting. It seems remarkable that such a small thing can profoundly influence the decision process.

Early baby sex test over the web

dapo — Tue, 08 May 2007 01:48:27 +0000

This news item has appeared on the BBC site. I know that people do want to know the sex of their child and this opens the possibility of making this very easy form very early in the pregnancy.

I do hope the concerns about the use of the test to abort unwanted children prove to be misplaced. As it stand at the moment, a couple could still abort after the sex is determined at the 20 week scan. This procedure would be far easy to perform if it was carried out at an earlier stage.

As an expectant parent, I find it hard to believe that some one would want to abort purely on the grounds of sex. I do sympathise with couples with a history of hereditary illness linked to the sex chromosomes.