A harrowing account of the investigation of a post-operative death, made all the worse because it is true and it has to be told. (more…)
NHS Threats
Pounds for Patients – Just Plain Wrong
The Centre for Health and the Public Interest (CHPI)’s report (Pounds for Patients) highlighted in the Guardian of 1/7/2019 is shocking. 400 NHS consultants owning shares in private hospitals to which they refer patients must surely expose them to irresistible pressures to refer patients to “their” hospitals whether or not this is in the patient’s….
DFNHS-BMJ Essay Prize 2019
The DFNHS-BMJ Essay competition is happening again. Doctors for the NHS are offering a prize of £500 for the best essay with the title: “ Where have all the doctors gone – and why?” (more…)
Non Mea Culpa
Matt Hancock tweets that each of the 52,000 annual deaths from sepsis is a preventable tragedy. Tragic yes, but preventable no, certainly not with the current delays between onset of symptoms and first dose of antibiotics. (more…)
Health surcharge – doctor overcharge
The “Health Surcharge” for non-EU migrants was introduced by the Conservative government in 2015 with a promise in the 2017 manifesto that it would be tripled to £600. This was to be an annual fee paid by the applicant and all their dependents and to be paid upfront as part of the application process. Xenophobes no….
DFNHS Response to Developing a patient safety strategy for the NHS
NHS Improvements’ strategy document ‘Developing a patient safety strategy for the NHS’ invited comments. Eric Watts, on behalf of DFNHS, replied. You can download his response here.
BMJ ESSAY COMPETITION: THE ESSAYS
‘Our profession in today’s NHS’ drew an astonishingly high calibre of responses from Junior doctors for the BMJ essay competition. Now you can read them for yourself. There surely has to be hope when junior members of the profession demonstrate not only their passion for the NHS, but such articulate and powerful arguments to defend….
Do not follow the money – look for value
A refreshing take on the false allure of (obsession with?) money and the NHS, and what it means for medical migration: Resources, neo-colonialism and the NHS
NHS Consultations: Make Your Voice Heard
No time to lose – make your voice heard NHS England began their promised public consultation on the contract that would underpin their reincarnation of Accountable Care Organisations in August. (more…)
Babylon – a beguiling curse?
‘Your merchants were the great men of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery’ – Revelation 18:1-24 The bedrock of general practice – and indeed the NHS itself – is that all of us will need healthcare at some point in our lives, most of us will not need it for….