You know times are bad when you can’t even trust your colleagues at the clinic …
Here's hoping Dr Hedgeh isn't a reader
Dr Blogs
An open blog enabling commentators from across secondary care to share their opinions. To contribute email editorial@hospitaldr.co.uk
Doctor gets all prickly over name change
By Mike Broad - 11th May 2012 2:41 pmMTI provides answer to shortage of juniors
By Peter Trewby, associate international director of the Royal College of Physicians - 10th May 2012 1:41 pmIs your department increasingly dependant on junior doctor locums? Are you dissatisfied with their quality, reliability and expense? Do you wish there was a more satisfactory long term solution? If the answer to any of these is ‘yes’, then the medical training initiative scheme could be the answer to your problems.
The scheme was introduced in 2009 to allow doctors to enter the UK from outside the EU to benefit from training in NHS posts for 2 years before returning to their home country. Different Royal Colleges administer the scheme in different ways (and not all colleges run a scheme) but for medical specialties the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) receives applications for MTI posts directly from trusts and deaneries. They need not be official deanery training posts, indeed most are trust-grade or LAS posts, and the posts can be at core medical training or specialist trainee level.
The training component is paramount and must be on a par with UK training posts including opportunities for local training and study leave. The posts are funded at standard UK rates.
The graduates accepted onto the MTI scheme are of high calibre. They must be 3 years qualified, have the IELTS English exam with a score of at least 7.0 across the board, and a postgraduate qualification (MRCP, MD, board exams etc). Candidates are interviewed in their home country by a panel of UK consultants, a UK lay member and consultants from the overseas partner institution most of whom have experience of UK medicine. The doctors’ competencies, CV and career intentions are assessed at interview which includes 2 stations testing standardised clinical and ethical scenarios.
IMGs approved for the scheme are sponsored through GMC recognition, without the need for PLAB, and are matched to NHS posts based on their specialty interests and skill levels. Once appointed to the scheme, trusts can undertake their own telephone interviews to establish contact and confirm the doctor is suitable for their post.
The RCP currently has a number of job ready candidates for posts at CMT and ST level in most medical specialties. Once appointed these doctors will be with you for 2 years. They will become an invaluable part of your team and keep alive UK and global medical links which have been in place since the inception of the NHS.
They will save your trust a considerable amount of money (agency ‘finding fees’ are 30% of annual salary and for short term locums the hourly rate charged by the agency is twice the NHS rate) and as they are in post for 2 years they will bring a degree of stability to your department which in turn will support UK graduates during their rotations.
If you are interested further details are available on college websites. For medical specialties do not hesitate to contact the International Office at the Royal College of Physicians (international@rcplondon.ac.uk, telephone 0207 935 1174 ext 1304).
“I said what about breakfast at Glenfields…”
By Mike Broad - 8th May 2012 7:44 amA respiratory consultant at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, asked his registrar why juniors weren’t using their guidelines for acute asthma, and whether he could “sort it out”.
THIS is what the registrar came back with (using his mobile phone).
I guess if medicine loses its appeal there’s always The Voice…
Brave doctor writes book about being a patient
By Mike Broad - 1st May 2012 4:20 pmTerminally-ill doctor - Kate Granger - has returned to work at Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield.
The 30-year-old registrar in elderly medicine was taken ill on holiday in the United States last summer. She’s suffering from desmoplastic small-round-cell-tumour, and decided at the start of the year to stop having chemotherapy for her rare and aggressive cancer.
Rather than wallow in self-pity, like many of us would, she swiftly returned to work and has written a medical text book detailing her experiences of treatment.
She said: “I had just got to the point where the burden of chemotherapy was outweighing any benefit it was giving me. Three weeks after I made the decision, I was back at work.”
She hopes the honest account, called The Other Side, will help colleagues better understand their patients. All proceeds are going to the Yorkshire Cancer Centre in Leeds and she’s sold nearly 1,300 paperback copies.
Dr Granger, from East Ardsley, said: “I think I was a good doctor before but these observations have made me a much better doctor. Over the last couple of months I’ve had some tough cases and I have got more empathy. That’s one of the aims of the book.”
What a legend. Click HERE to buy a copy.
“I am very matter of fact about dying and death. I think the quality of your life is much more important than the quantity,” she says.
Bit of a rant about medical representatives (again)
By Mike Broad - 30th April 2012 3:32 pmA consultant friend of mine is about to become a Fellow of their Royal College (note the grandeur of the capitals). She’s quite excited because it’s a day out with her Mum and an excuse to dress up and have some photos taken.
I asked her: what is the difference between being a member and a fellow? She said she didn’t know, though qualified it by saying it was a “rites of passage” thing for consultants.
A quick Google search suggested that’s not quite true - there are some voting rights reserved for fellows - but she wasn’t far off.
Of course, there’s no such thing as a free trip to the college lunch, and becoming a fellow costs the member a tidy sum.
But, I didn’t start writing this to have a moan about royal college membership structures (and they all have different approaches anyway) - I am writing this because I have a problem with the fact that if trainees and consultants barely understand the representative structures that they fund what hope do we have of supporting and enabling positive change in healthcare.
While the colleges run their exclusive (ish) but seemingly pointless clubs (fellows do of course get to fiddle with the letters after their names), the whole of the NHS has been reformed for no apparent reason.
So, finally, I’m on to the main the topic: the new chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. I bet you an enormous amount of money (well, five of your English pounds anyway) that the average consultant has no idea what it does. Here’s an explanation: still don’t get it! How did you ever manage to become a fellow…
The new man is Prof Terence Stephenson, lately of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Now two things happened recently at AMRC which I think suggests they’ve finally realised that the average consultant can’t see the point of them.
Firstly, they made a half-arsed attempt to resist the Health and Social Care Bill, which descended into farce when they realised that their constituent members couldn’t agree on what refreshments to have during the comfort break let alone develop a coherent message in opposition to a dangerous piece of legislation. OK, I did make up the first bit of that sentence: it was a 6 to 4 majority for the Jaffa Cakes.
Secondly, as a backlash, they suddenly got punchy over obesity. I guess they’re on safer (if slightly depressed) ground when talking about fatties. But it was quite unusual for them to be so strident over government policy in this area - which is indeed laughable.
Maybe, just maybe, this suggests the new man taking up the reins is determined to make a difference. Prof Stephenson is the driving force behind that particular campaign and has presided over significant modernisation of his royal college.
Then we have a new chief exec at the HCSA, and the BMA’s Hamish - more a safe pair of hands than a firebrand - is coming to the end of his tenure.
If any of you lab monkeys out there know how to clone Clare Gerada now would be a good time. We’ve had more than our fair share of Dolly the Sheeps in these roles.
Because I’m working in twos today, I’m just going to leave you with two questions: if we don’t know what organisations do, do we need them? If we do need them - and I’m sure there is training and standards stuff that is terribly ‘important’ - then why is it so hard to point to big successes?
NHS Medical Director on night-time discharges
By Mike Broad - 17th April 2012 10:27 pmFollowing the ’scandal’ of night-time discharges from hospital, the NHS Medical Director wrote the following letter to SHAs:
Dear SHA MD,
You will have seen the reports in the media this week - based on responses to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request from The Times - indicating that some patients are being discharged from hospital between 11pm and 6am. While some patients may of course choose to be discharged during these hours, the examples highlighted of elderly patients being left to make their way home by themselves in the middle of the night are obviously unacceptable, and need to be addressed urgently.
Discharge or care transfer is of course an essential part of care management in any setting. It ensures that health and social care systems are proactive in supporting patients and their families and carers to either return home or transfer to another setting. It also ensures that systems are using resources effectively.
It would appear from the media reports that NHS trusts followed a number of different approaches when responding to the FoI request. For example, I understand that some analyses included ’self-discharges’, ‘deaths and discharges’ and patients in ‘assessment units’ in their responses, while others focused on ‘discharges’ only. Whilst these different approaches make ‘like for like’ comparisons of this particular set of data difficult, the challenge to the NHS is absolutely clear - that patients should only be discharged when it is clinically appropriate, safe and convenient for them and their families.
I would therefore like you to approach those trusts within your SHA area who responded to the FoI request and ask them to review their analysis and practices, in the light of what could reasonably be expected of them, in line with established good practice. A similar request to review practices should also be directed to those Trusts who did not respond to the FoI request. It is important that Trust Boards take ownership of this issue, so I would expect medical directors, working with their nursing director colleagues, to ensure that the findings of their reviews are reported to their Boards at the earliest opportunity.
The issues highlighted by the recent media reports are central to the drive to put quality at the heart of the NHS. As health professionals we all agree that patients should be treated with compassion, so it is simply not acceptable to send people home from hospital late at night when they may have no family members nearby to support them.
I would like your assurance that appropriate arrangements are in place in all NHS trusts to ensure timely discharge and care transfer for all patients, and I expect to discuss the outcome of the actions I have requested when we next meet on 8 May.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Bruce Keogh
Medical Director of the NHS
One dean’s backlash against BMA pension ballot
By Mike Broad - 5th April 2012 11:34 amThe following letter appeared in The Telegraph:
Dear Sir,
The British Medical Association (BMA) has now decided to ballot members on taking industrial action over changes to doctors’ pensions. If approved, industrial action would apparently consist of doctors providing “urgent and emergency care only for a period of 24 hours” and cancelling non-urgent clinical work. The BMA says that this would be reviewed to ensure that patient safety is “the overriding priority”.
It is difficult to see how any action which adversely affects patient care can be consonant with the professional duties of a doctor. It is also a contradiction in terms to suggest that such action can be taken without affecting patient safety, particularly in hospitals where clinical work is predominantly acute and complex and cannot be deferred for 24 hours.
Regardless of the egregious nature of this and previous governments’ interference with one of the most cost-effective public sector pension schemes in the world, the fiduciary responsibility of a doctor to a patient transcends the right to withdraw patient care. To take industrial action will harm the profession much more than it will benefit pensions.
Professor Julian Bion,
Dean, Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine,
London WC1.
Fancy working overseas? That’s lucky …
By Mike Broad - 2nd April 2012 2:06 pmWhy is workforce planning in the NHS so shonky?
I’ve been saying this for 12 years – since I first started writing about the NHS – and nothing has really changed despite some pretty impressive crises along the way.
In February, the Centre for Workforce Intelligence suggested that consultant numbers would have to increase by 60% by 2020 if policy makers continue to recruit and train doctors at current rates. Workforce planning has clearly not caught up with our changed financial outlook.
The Department of Health has spun this positively saying the surplus might provide opportunities to develop seven-day working.
Sounds good right up until the point you realise that this level of expansion to the consultant body would add £2.2bn on to the 2010 wage bill. This will be completely unaffordable.
For a frontline view on surpluses (in Scotland this time) look no further than resident Hospital Dr blogger Caroline Whymark, and even ‘official’ sources.
CWI chief executive Peter Sharp told the FT over the weekend that one solution might be to arrange placements for juniors in countries with shortages of doctors, including Australia, New Zealand and Eastern Europe. But that strikes me as simply delaying the issue – would we really be able to squeeze the supply of trainees sufficiently to allow their mass re-integration as more senior doctors?
Sharp is right about one thing though – we have to act now.
It could prove fortuitous that the administrative system overseeing workforce development is, with the passage of the Health and Social Care Bill, changing. In the current deanery model the accountability for workforce development resides with SHAs, where local workforce intelligence is gathered from trusts, and planning is undertaken at a county level by local health community workforce boards. The local workforce plans then being aggregated at the regional level.
The new system is short of detail but places the main accountability on healthcare providers, which are obliged to set up local NHS education and training boards to undertake their workforce functions. They’ll work with postgraduate deaneries for the time being on workforce planning and assurance, and education commissioning.
Overseeing the new system will be Healthcare Education England (replacing Medical Education England), a new special health authority directly accountable to the health secretary.
Sounds like some moving of the deck chairs, I hear you say. Well, LETBs (yes, another acronym to learn) have a better chance of considering both trainees’ and local employers’ needs and feeding that back into the system.
The lack of local demand for consultants should prompt HEE (come on, you know you love them really) to pressurise both the government and medical schools into tightening up undergraduate numbers considerably. Then the Department of Health has to come up with a cogent way of using the current crop of young doctors that doesn’t simply turn the UK into a net exporter of medics at the taxpayers’ expense.
Inevitably that will involve a push towards seven day working by senior doctors in the acute sector. But, as the BMA’s Dr Mark Porter pointed out recently, this is unaffordable – so the government will try to do it on the cheap and introduce a cut-price, service-oriented, sub-consultant grade…
There will be ‘growth’ specialties that offer opportunities for doctors but we also need more flexibility in the training system so trainees can more readily ‘re-purpose’ themselves for specialties suffering shortages.
Even if this happens quickly many of our newly qualified doctors today are going to find themselves jobless in the UK in eight years time. But, fingers crossed, their lack of career opportunity will not be reflected in successive generations.
Letter: Medics to challenge MPs at next election
By Mike Broad - 18th March 2012 10:41 pmThe following letter appeared in the Independent on Sunday on 18 March:
Dear Sir,
We believe that the Parliamentary passage of the Health and Social Care Bill has been an embarrassment to our democracy.
Experts in health policy and public, commercial and constitutional law have published evidence in leading peer reviewed medical journals explaining how the Health and Social Care Bill (despite the most recent amendments) will lead to the abolition of the NHS in England. The bill will facilitate the transition from a single payer tax funded system to a mixed funding system, with increasing privatisation of the provision and commissioning of healthcare in England. These drastic changes fundamentally undermine the founding principles of the NHS and have no democratic mandate from the electorate and were not part of the coalition agreement.
As healthcare professionals, we are appalled that the coalition Government has imposed many of the changes before the bill has even been enacted and then tried to use this as “evidence” that the professions support their reform. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Government has systematically failed to make the case for such radical change to the NHS, which has recently been shown to be one of the most cost effective and highly performing healthcare systems in the world, enjoying its highest ever public satisfaction rates. None of the major healthcare representative organisations and professional associations supports the reforms, and the majority of them would like to see the bill withdrawn. From the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health to the British Geriatrics Society, healthcare professionals agree that the reforms will damage and fragment the NHS, widen healthcare inequalities, and worsen patient care in England.
Despite such widespread professional concern and opposition to this hopelessly complex, flawed and potentially dangerous legislation, the coalition government has repeatedly blocked the publication of the NHS risk register and continues to push ahead with the bill, which is likely to be granted Royal Assent on Tuesday 20th March. It is our view that coalition MPs and Peers have placed the political survival of the coalition government above professional opinion, patient safety, and the will of the citizens of this country.
The leadership of the Liberal Democrats have ignored the democratic view of their spring conference and continue to support a bill, which betrays their proud heritage of Beveridge’s vision of the Welfare State and the NHS. They have colluded with their Conservative coalition partners and utilised all the political dark arts of obfuscation, deceit, and media manipulation to confuse and conceal the bill’s underlying objectives, in order to force the bill through. Liberal Democrat peers have even gone as far as voting against their own amendments.
We are shocked by the failure of the democratic process and the facilitating role played by the Liberal Democrats in the passage of this bill. We have therefore decided to form a coalition of healthcare professionals to take on coalition MPs at the next General election, on the non-party, independent ticket of defending the NHS and acting in the wider public interest.
Dr Clive Peedell, Consultant Clinical Oncologist, Co-chair NHS Consultants’ Association
Professor John R Ashton CBE, Liverpool John Moores University
Dr Jacky Davis Co-chair NHS Consultants’ Association
Dr Richard T Taylor FRCP, Independent MP for Wyre Forest 2001-2010
Professor Paul Cullinan, Professor of Occupational and Environmental Respiratory Disease, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London
Professor Alwyn Smith, Past President faculty of Public Health
Professor John O. Warner, President of Academic Paediatric Association (GBI), Professor and Head of Paediatrics, Imperial College, Director of research for the Women and Children’s Clinical Programme Group, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Professor Charles Warlow, Emeritus Professor of Medical Neurology, University of Edinburgh
Professor Derek Cook, Professor of Epidemiology, London
Professor Richard Thomson, professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle
Professor Martin White, Professor of Public Health, Newcastle University
Professor Bertie Squire, professor of Clinical Tropical Medicine, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Professor Francesco Pezzella, Professor of Tumour Pathology, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford
Professor Harry Keen CBE, President of NHS Support Federation
Professor James McEwen, Emeritus Professor in Public Health, University of Glasgow
Professor Paul Dieppe, Director of the Institute of Clinical Education, Peninsula Medical School, Universities of Plymouth and Exeter
Professor Jennifer A Roberts, Emeritus Professor in Economics of Public Health, Health Services Research Unit, Department of Public Health & Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Professor Klim McPherson, PhD, Visiting Professor of Public Health Epidemiology, Nuffield Dept Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Emeritus Fellow of New College, University of Oxford
Professor Stuart Logan, Cerebra Professor of Paediatric Epidemiology, Director - Institute of Health Service Research, Director - NIHR PenCLAHRC, Peninsula College of Medicine & Dentistry, Peninsula Medical School
Professor David Hunter, Professor of Health Policy and Management at Durham University
Professor John Yates, Emeritus Professor of Medical Genetics, University of Cambridge, Professorial Research Associate, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, Honorary Consultant, Moorfields Eye Hospital, London
Professor William McGuire, Professor of Child Health, HYMS & CRD, University of York
Professor John Gabbay, Emeritus Professor of Public Health, University of Southampton
Prof Peter Whincup, Professor of Epidemiology, University of London
Professor Michel Coleman, Professor of Epidemiology and Vital Statistics, Cancer Research UK Cancer Survival Group, Department of Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Professor Trisha Greenhalgh, OBE, Joint Lead Global Health, Policy and Innovation Unit, Barts and the London
Professor Will Irving, Professor and Honorary Consultant in Virology, University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Dept Microbiology, University Hospital, Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham
Professor Wendy Savage, Emeritus professor Obstetrics and Gynaecology, London, Chair KONP
Professor Robert Tattersall, Retired Professor of Clinical Diabetes at the University of Nottingham
Professor Chris Griffiths, Professor of primary care, Centre for primary care and public health, Blizard Institute, Barts and the London medical school
Professor Ann Louise Kinmonth CBE, Emeritus Professor of General Practice, University of Cambridge
Professor Allyson Pollock, Professor of Public Health Research and Policy, Queen Mary, University of London
Dr Jonathan Folb, Consultant Microbiologist, Liverpool
Dr John Boswell, retired Public Health Consultant, Scotland
Dr Christopher Birt, Consultant in Public Health, Senior Research fellow, University of Liverpool
Dr Maggie Ireland, Consultant Public Health Geneticist
Dr Jonathan Tomlinson, GP, The Lawson Practice, London
Dr Deborah Colvin, GP, The Lawson Practice, London
Dr Nicholas Hopkinson, Consultant Physician, London
Dr Corinne Camilleri-Ferrante, Consultant in Public Health Medicine
Mrs Wendy King, Macmillan Paediatric Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist, London
Dr Eleanor Hill, Public Health Specialist and Independent Health Development Consultant, Worsley
Dr Sian Williams, Consultant in Occupational Medicine, London
Dr Simon Lenton, Consultant Paediatrician, Bath
Dr Sarah Corlett, Consultant in Public Health, London
Dr Liz Anderson, SpR in genito-urinary medicine, Liverpool
Dr Steven Bick, Dorset
Dr Tony Waterston, retired Consultant Paediatrician, Newcastle
Dr Amy Ford, SpR , Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology, Wirral
Dr Ruth Suckling, SpR Emergency Medicine
Dr Paul Goulden, Consultant Anaesthetist, Dewsbury
Dr Kailash Chand OBE, Stalybridge
Dr Lance Turtle, Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Fellow, University of Liverpool
Dr Georgina Deighton, GP, London
Dr Julian Hodges, GP, Programme Director, London
Dr Gerard Reissman, GP, Newcastle
Dr Bob Bury, Consultant Radiologist (retired), Leeds
Dr Emma Aarons, Consultant virologist, Surrey
Dr Richard Cunningham, Consultant Microbiologist, Plymouth
Dr Robert J Higgo, Merseyside
Dr Paul Hobday, GP, Maidstone
Dr Neil Todd, Clinical Microbiologist, North Yorkshire
Dr Fahim Tungekar, Consultant/Hon clinical senior lecturer, Histopathology, St Thomas’ Hospital
Dr Roz Dixon PhD, Clinical Psychology, London
Dr Eric Rose, retired GP, Buckinghamshire
Dr Kim Holt, Consultant Paediatrician and Chair Patients First
Dr Valeria Frighi, Clinical researcher, Psychiatry, Oxford
Dr Claire Davies, GP, City and Hackney PCT
Dr David Bostock, retired GP, Stockport
Dr Arif Rajpura, Director of Public Health, NHS, Blackpool
Dr Lynda Bobrow, retired consultant Histopatholgist, Addenbrookes, Cambridge
Dr Morris Bernadt, retired consultant psychiatrist
Dr E M Murphy, GP, Bristol
Dr David Drew, Retired Consultant Paediatrician, Sutton Coldfield
Dr Sheila Cheeroth OBE, GP Principal, Limehouse, Practice London
Dr Jonathan Fluxman ,GP, Harrow Road Health Centre, London
Mr T.J.Fallon, Consultant Ophthalmologist, Central Middlesex Hospital
Dr Jane Young, Consultant Radiologist, Whittington Hospital
Dr Alison Pritchard, Consultant in Public Health, Derbyshire
Dr Charles Clarke, FRCP London
Dr Sally Stewart, GP, Bradford
Dr Louise Irvine, GP, Amersham Vale Practice, London
Dr Abi Berger, Randolph Surgery, London
Dr David C Wilson, Consultant Clinical Oncologist, James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough
Dr David Bossano, General Practitioner, St Leonard’s Practice, Exeter
Dr Clare Offer, Speciality Registrar in Public Health, York
Dr Stephanie Franz, GP, Bristol
Dr Kathy McAdam Freud, GP Principal
Dr Mark Waters, GP Partner, Cantilupe Surgery, Hereford
Dr Rod Escombe MRCP MRCGP PhD, G.P. London
Dr Natasha Arnold FRCP, Consultant Geriatrician , Specialist interest in Intermediate care, Homerton University Hospital
Dr John Walley, Leeds
Dr John Robson, General Practitioner, London
Dr Laura Lyttelton MRCGP
Dr Hubertus von Blumenthal, GP, Gamlingay
Dr Jackie Applebee GP, London
Dr Sebastian Kraemer, Honorary Consultant Tavistock Clinic, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Whittington Hospital London
Dr Ingrid Wolfe, Child Public Health Research Fellow and Paediatrician , London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Department of Health Services Research and Policy
Dr Natasha Gordon, GP, Leeds
Dr Alison Gill, St5 respiratory medicine, Leeds
Dr Patrick Zentler-Munro MA MD FRCP (Edin), Retired Consultant Physician, Raigmore Hospital, Inverness
Dr Pete Deveson, GP, Epsom
Dr David Porteous, GP, Fishponds Family Practice, Bristol
Dr Simon Atkins, GP, Bristol
Dr John Pike, Sessional GP, Bristol
Dr Benedict Michael, NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow, Brain Infections UK, Institute of Infection and Global Health, The University of Liverpool
Dr Marcus Beadle, Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Calderdale & Huddersfield NHSFT
Dr Jennifer Mindell, clinical senior lecturer, UCL
Dr George Farrelly, GP partner, London
Dr Helen Groom, GP, Gateshead
Dr Sally Johnston, GP, Hampshire
Dr Nick Mann, GP, Well St Surgery, London
Dr Jenny Bywaters, Consultant in Public Health (retired), Sheffield
Dr Nigel Dickson, GP, Southampton
Dr Kathy Greenough, GP, Derwentside
Dr Naomi Startin, GP ST3, Lewisham
Dr Shahid M Dadabhoy, Family Practitioner and Educational Facilitator, Chingford
Dr Lucy Reynolds, Consultant Paediatrician, Glasgow
Dr Sylvia Chandler, GP, retired
Dr Viv Taylor, Bethnal Green Health Centre, London
Dr Emma Clow, StR6 Anaesthetics, Bristol
Dr Guru Singh, GP, Bridge Street Medical Practice, Loughborough
Mr Peter Worral, patient, Leicester
Dr Edward Clarke , GP, Vauxhall Primary Health Care, Liverpool
Dr Katherine Teale, Consultant anaesthetist, Manchester
Dr Zaib Davids, consultant psychiatrist
Dr Sahena Haque, Consultant Rheumatologist, ELHT
Dr Mirsada Smailbegovic, Consultant Community Paediatrician, Hackney ARK, London
Dr Joe Brierley, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London
Dr Dan Bernstein, GP, Camden, London
Dr Jasmin Khan-Singh, Associate specialist in SRH, Aneurin Bevan health Board, Cwmbran
Dr Iain Maclennan , Consultant in Public Health
Dr Paul Carter, Consultant Paediatrician (Community), Staffordshire
Dr Sean Hopson, Consultant Anaesthetist, Hawkesbury Upton, South Glos
Anya Gopfert, Policy and Advocacy Director, Medsin-UK
Dr Sunil Bhopal, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Dr Michael Quinn, Royal Exeter and Devon NHS Trust
Dr Anthony Macklon, Consultant Physician, County Durham
Dr Louise Tebboth, Salaried GP, Southwark
Dr Jacqueline Ferguson, retired consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Oxford
Dr Peter Baker, SHO in A&E at the Royal London Hospital
Mr Guppi Bola, Public health campaigner, Big Society NHS
Dr Alan Stanton, Consultant Community Paediatrician , Heart of England Foundation Trust
Mr Barry Fairbrother, retired consultant surgeon, Chesterfield
Dr Jim Ford, Consultant in Occupational Medicine
Dr Thomas Kus, Consultant Paediatrician, Lead for Paediatric Haematology/Oncology, GRH Children’s Centre, Gloucester
Dr Donatella Soldi, London
Dr Tom Yates, Senior House Officer, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Dr Mike Lawson, GP Principal, Horton Park Surgery, Bradford
Dr Tessa Katz, GP, City and Hackney
Dr Surinder Singh, GP, Amersham Vale Practice, London
Dr Marek Koperski, GP, Camden CCG
Dr Anne-Marie Childs, Consultant Paediatric Neurologist, Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust
Dr Judith Cook GP
Dr Gavin Young, Temple Sowerby, Cumbria
Dr Pete Budden, GP and Salford CCG Prescribing Lead, Eccles, Manchester
Dr Mark Struthers, GP and prison medical officer, Bedfordshire
Dr Richard Morrison, retired GP
Dr Gary Marlowe, GP, City and Hackney GP
Dr Harriet Dickson, GP, Exeter
Dr Ian F. Pye, Consultant Neurologist, Leicester
Dr Ben Hart, GP principal, Chrisp Street Health Centre, London
Dr Katy Gardner, GP, Liverpool
Dr Lyda Jadresic, Consultant Paediatrician, Gloucester
Dr Anna Livingstone, GP, The Limehouse Practice Gill Street Health Centre, London
Dr Nick Theobald, Clinical Lecturer/Associate Specialist, Chelsea and Westminster
Dr Emma Storr, Clinical Lecturer, Academic Unit of Primary Care, Leeds Institute of Health Sciences
Dr Mike Priestnall, Staff grade Anaesthetist at Colchester General Hospital
Dr Helen Murrell, GP, Sunniside Surgery, Newcastle
Dr Karen Franks, Consultant Old Age Psychiatry, Bensham Hospital, Gateshead
Dr Peter Agulnik, Consultant Psychiatrist, Oxfordshire
Dr C.M.Richards, retired GP Sheffield
Dr Nick Stern, Consultant Hepatologist, University Hospital Aintree, Liverpool
Dr Elisabeth Paul, GP Registrar , London
Dr Pat Munday, Consultant Genitourinary Physician, West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust
Dr Sara Hamilton, Part time Paediatrician and Academic, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust & University College London
Dr Bernie Borgstein, Imperial College, London
Dr Roger Bayston, Assoc Professor / Reader, Surgical Infection, Head, Biomaterials – Related Infection Group, School of Clinical Sciences Nottingham University Hospitals UK
Dr Brian B Scott MD, Lincoln
Dr David Lawrence, Consultant in Public Health for IFRs, NHS SE London, Hon Senior Lecturer, Dept Health Services Research and Policy London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Dr Sophia Galloway, GP, Steyning Health Centre West Sussex
Dr Andrea Franks, Consultant Dermatologist, Chester
Dr Paul Stern Retired GP
Dr Ruth Stern, Doctor in Public Health, Trustee Medact
Mrs Helene Brandon, MRCOG
Dr Karen Macsween Consultant Microbiologist
Dr Kelvin Davies, GP, Hillcrest Medical Centre, Wrexham
Dr Coral Jones, GP, London Fields medical Centre
Dr Chris Johnstone, GP, Paisley
Dr Kadhim Kadhim, CMT1, Elderly Care, Middlesbrough
Dr Richard Grunewald, Sheffield
Dr Maggie Eisner, Training Programme Director, Bradford Specialist Training Scheme for General Practice, Bradford Royal Infirmary
Dr Andrew Mcpartlin, SpR, clinical oncology
Dr Richard Byng, GP, Mount Gould Plymouth and Clinical Senior Lecturer, Peninsula Medical School.
Dr Sandra Husbands, Consultant in Public Health Medicine, NHS Harrow
Dr Alison Vaughan
Dr Richard Gunstone, Rugby
Dr Ian J. Hart, Consultant Medical Virologist, Royal Liverpool University Hospital
Dr Brian Fisher, GP, SE London
Dr Robert George, Consultant Anaesthetist, Elgin
Dr Paul Gorham, Consultant Paediatrician
Dr Eric Watts
Dr Max Priesemann, MRCPCH
Dr Frank Arnold
Dr Colin Godber
Dr David Cohen
Dr Kevin O’Kane, Consultant Physician
Dr Andrew Cummin
Dr Carol Brayne
Dr V Thiagarasah
Dr Peter Dawson
Dr Nigel Speight, Paediatrician , Durham
Dr Liz Ford, CT1 Psychiatry
Paul Whalen, Leicestershire Health branch Unison – personal capacity
Dr Anne Solomon, GP, London
Dr Peter Hall, Chair, Doctors for Human Rights
Dr Simon Court, Associate Clinical Lecturer, Newcastle
Dr George Rylance, School of Clinical Medical Sciences (Child Health), University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Dr Pam Zinkin, retired Consultant Paediatrician,
Dr Trish Evans, Salaried GP, Page Hall Medical Centre, Sheffield
Mr Greg Dring, Clinical Psychologist, Bath
Dr Dougal Hargreaves, Research fellow, General & Adolescent Paediatrics Unit, UCL Institute of Child Health
Dr Anu Kumar, GP and CCG Board member, Hackney PCT
Dr Lauren Cooper-Jones, GP registrar Tower Hamlets
Dr Richard Chin, clinical lecturer at UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH) and Great Ormond Street NHS Trust
Dr Rachel Besser, Peninsula Medical School
Dr Jane Logan. GP, Vauxhall
Dr Alexis Macherianakis, Consultant in public health medicine, Birmingham
Dr Richard Ayres MD, Academic GP, Plymouth
Dr Peter Williams, Consultant in Acute and Emergency Medicine, Whiston Hospital, St Helens, Merseyside
Dr Vivien M Addey, GP
Dr Shabbir Ahmed
Dr Mark Witcomb, A&E registrar, Farnham
Dr Benjamin Robinson, Timber Wharf, London
Dr Mike Fitchett, GP, Island Health, Tower Hamlets
Dr Benedict McCaffrey, GP, Leominster Herefordshire
Dr J Hampson , Liverpool
Dr Jez McCole ,GP, Gleadless Medical Centre
Dr Paul Batchelor, Consultant in Dental Public Health, Thames Valley Dental Public Health Network and Hon. Senior Lecturer Dental Public Health, UCL
Professor Robert West, Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology, Wales Heart Research Institute [Cardiff University] Heath Park, Cardiff
Architects of their own downfall on public health
By Mike Broad - 16th March 2012 10:50 amA major part of the continuing mistrust of the Tory party when it comes to health issues and the NHS is the belief that their desire to increase private sector involvement is based on vested interest rather than an altruistic desire to improve healthcare. In truth, Labour aren’t much better, but for some unknown reason they’re more trusted by the public on this issue.
The Tories certainly aren’t doing much to dispel this perception when it comes to their approach to public health.
We’re now one year into the government’s ‘responsibility deal’, designed to encourage the food and drinks industry to take a less exploitative approach to their customers.
A Which? report suggests that the initiative is overly reliant on voluntary agreements. Major food companies are still failing to display the calorie content of their products, or reduce the amount of salt in their foods.
The Department of Health, however, said 371 organisations have now agreed to the deal - compared to 176 when the scheme was launched - with 9,000 food outlets in England displaying calorie information on their menus.
Sounds good, but when you consider that only two of the country’s top 10 restaurant and pub groups have agreed to display the calorie content of their products the reality isn’t so great.
As you would expect, health secretary Andrew Lansley has defended the approach: “The responsibility deal has delivered far more action, more quickly than before and more than could have been achieved through regulation in that time. We have shown real leadership, working with industry to find an approach that delivers results.”
Hmmm. I’m no fan of the nanny state, but I have to admit when it comes to public health, legislation works. Do I even have to mention the smoking ban in public places?
What I find ironic is that the health secretary is currently going round saying the NHS is going to collapse without his dramatic reforms due to the ageing population and obesity time bomb, and yet very few experts agree with his restructuring of public health professionals and a large number of people feel he’s being too soft on the food and drinks industry.
If you want to tackle obesity and reduce salt levels in food, you are going to have to legislate - even if your chums in the sector don’t like it. That is what “real leadership” is Andrew.