tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104281480496756682024-03-13T05:37:28.607+00:00The ferret fanciera ranting vehicle to drive where the moment takes meGarth Marenghihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07373175498875348430noreply@blogger.comBlogger568125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-9190648935102179222018-01-19T17:06:00.004+00:002018-01-19T17:06:57.382+00:00Hunt lied and the DH continue to hide the truth......
Above is a response from the Department of Health (DH) to my MP, Layla Moran who very kindly sent them a question about pre-conditions to negotiation of the junior doctor contract. The background to this is complex but this specific issue can be summarised fairly concisely. Jeremy Hunt has repeatedly stated that there were never any 'pre-conditions' to negotiating the junior benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-28752160337966639682018-01-18T12:43:00.000+00:002018-01-18T12:49:05.425+00:00The NHS 'crisis'
There's no doubt that some of the most used cliches are so widely used for a reason, probably relating to them holding a fair bit of the truth fluid. I think the cliche along the lines of 'you learn most about yourself when times are tough' is a pretty good one. Where am I heading with this? Well I think you can apply it to those within a system in positions of power during benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-69052142100434228492017-08-18T18:47:00.000+01:002017-08-18T18:47:09.913+01:00The dampest squib - Shape of Training outcome
So the Shape of Training Steering Group have published their final report and I think it's fair to say it's a massive improvement on Professor Greenaway's disastrous first draft. My summary article in the BMJ from 2015 summarises the huge problems with the initial report and the rather dubious political influence upon the review that was taking place off the public record.
The most benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-35855231616296706842017-07-18T14:51:00.000+01:002017-07-18T14:51:16.054+01:00Breathtaking incompetence - a monumental shambles in their hands
I've been reading Rachel Clarke's book over the last few evenings and this is what has inspired me to ramble on the blog today. The mixture of humanity, sharp analysis and reasoned argument makes Rachel's excellent book absolutely essential for anyone interested in medicine, the NHS or healthcare. The way in which the government have ignored precisely this kind of incisive benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-16066377917076758252017-04-14T11:50:00.001+01:002017-04-14T11:50:04.824+01:00The BMJ talks a good talk.....
The BMJ does publish some very insightful work at times, I particularly enjoyed Iona Heath's recent piece on 'conflicts of interest within England's NHS':
"Although definitions and guidance about what to declare are useful, the real challenge facing individual clinicians and employers is to find a way to declare interests in a practical and meaningful way. "
I couldn't agree more and the benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-5746625443325536092017-03-13T13:28:00.002+00:002017-03-13T13:28:44.667+00:00My thoughts on physician associates et al
I read the latest edition of JTO with interest and noted the comments
from the Editor regarding 'physician associates', as well as the feature by
Anandu Nanu. Certainly it is possible that other allied healthcare
professionals can be used to provide valuable service and this can potentially
improve the training of junior doctors; perhaps medical support workers can be
more cost effective benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-39525128421795231872016-10-11T16:34:00.002+01:002016-10-12T09:54:38.328+01:00How to be healthy and smoke cigarettes? The HSJ's lack of impartiality revealed
Much has been said about the HSJ roundtable discussion last week, indeed the HSJ's piece relating to this discussion is due in the next few days. So I hear you asking, why am I asking so many questions and probing the exact context to this roundtable event? Firstly this tweet aroused my suspicions, this was tweeted at the end of last week by the HSJ's editor Alastair McLellan:
Itbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-87599126328771590472016-10-05T11:02:00.000+01:002016-10-05T11:02:17.676+01:00The problem with Jeremy Hunt and his fag packet inscribed reforms
First to set the scene, after years of failed negotiation
the government has encouraged NHS Trusts to impose a new contract of employment
upon junior doctors despite it being rejected by a majority of 58% in a recent
contract referendum. Much in the same
way that clinical errors often require a catalogue of failures from multiple
individuals, this junior doctor contract dog’s dinner benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-17523880402428846182016-06-09T09:49:00.001+01:002016-06-09T09:49:01.513+01:00My thoughts on the junior doctor contract vote
This post may be unpleasant reading for some of you but frankly it needs to be said given the way some of the 'debate' is heading. Firstly I'm not going to spin cheap sound bites and propaganda in order to push your opinion into voting 'Yes' or 'No'. It has been clear throughout all this that we are all big enough and ugly enough to analyse the evidence to make up our own minds.
Secondly benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-71410115258437805652016-03-23T18:38:00.002+00:002016-03-23T18:38:54.967+00:00Junior doctor contract imposition is flawed on every level
Background
The government is currently in the process of unilaterally
imposing a contract on the junior doctors of England. The Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish
government have decided it is not in the public interest to do the same. The Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’
Renumeration (DDRB) report published in July 2015 forms the backbone for the
government’s rationale for benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-73470984385733520682016-02-14T09:12:00.001+00:002016-02-14T09:13:48.985+00:00David Cameron's 7 day services 'on the cheap' will cost lives
The government are on the run, the NHS is struggling and they are being exposed as dishonest and incompetent on multiple fronts. The government recently breached the 18 week target for the first time ever and NHS satisfaction ratings are dropping rather rapidly.
A great example of their overt incompetence and dishonesty is the fact that contract reform is 7 day expansion of services benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-91349157345252279442016-01-06T12:41:00.002+00:002016-01-06T12:41:27.391+00:00Why did David Cameron ignore warnings re #juniorcontract ?benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-65740754912746269612016-01-04T19:23:00.000+00:002016-01-04T19:23:16.079+00:00The letter from over 700 individuals which Jeremy Hunt ignores......
Dear Jeremy Hunt,
We
are writing this letter as we have serious concerns regarding the DDRB report
relating tobenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-80457495330244003222015-11-28T09:59:00.001+00:002015-11-28T09:59:12.739+00:00Words of a not so junior doctor
Sadly despite our common goal of improving NHS care, talks
between our union, the BMA, and government broke down many months ago due for
reasons which have yet to become fully clear.
Recently the overtly hostile and aggressive mode of the government’s ongoing
threat of unilateral contract imposition upon junior doctors has been
particularly morale sapping and depressing to endure. benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-5803450251703574802015-11-08T09:54:00.002+00:002015-11-08T09:55:47.996+00:00Dear Mail Group.......
Dear Mail Group
I am writing for several reasons, all under the same general
umbrella of admiration for your mighty journalistic tradition which invariably
serves the public interest above all else.
It is most excellent that you are now taking such an interest in the
junior doctor contract story, particularly the way in which you are now
focusing on the characters involved, it is most benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-68948671201522893982015-11-07T09:49:00.003+00:002015-11-07T09:49:33.033+00:00Letter for Jeremy Hunt via HEE
Dear Health Education England
I am writing in response to the message sent by Jeremy Hunt,
the Secretary of State for Health, which was sent out to all junior doctors by
you on the 4/11/2015. It is most
excellent that there is now a direct channel of communication between junior
doctors and Mr Hunt. As you now appear
to be acting as his intermediary, I would be very grateful if benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-87321039221441399962015-07-24T18:36:00.003+01:002015-07-24T18:36:53.475+01:00DH miss the point and fail to apologise for breach of confidentialityThis is the full response I have received from the DH:
"Our ref: DE00000948527
Dear Mr Dean, Thank you for your recent correspondence to the Department of Health about the image used in a tweet posted on 17 July. I have been asked to reply.The Department has looked carefully at this matter and what took place was an entirely unintentional mistake. The benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-90516774852689747512015-07-18T15:07:00.002+01:002015-07-18T15:18:34.139+01:00Jeremy Hunt tweets photo with in-patient names clearly visible
Jeremy Hunt is not having a great day and my heart bleeds. Having attacked and denigrated NHS staff as he continues his campaign of destroying the NHS as a publicly delivered service, poor Jeremy made the error of tweeting a photo of himself posing within a hospital ward with hospital staff.
Unfortunately for Jeremy he tweeted this photo and contained within was a board listing benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-70986443377519750662015-07-06T19:52:00.002+01:002015-07-06T19:52:57.011+01:00GMC consultations - please respond!
Here is my response to the GMC consultations on 'credentialing' and 'generic professional capabilites':
"Dear GMC
As regards the two consultations:
Firstly as regards credentialing, the whole premise behind your goals is flawed. There is no proven benefit to introducing credentialing. It simply cannot be assumed that introducing credentialing will enhance regulation benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-20823176686143947122015-06-28T16:49:00.001+01:002015-06-28T16:49:32.257+01:00GMC spend on media relations
"The GMC Media Team
The Media Team work with colleagues across the organisation to promote the work of the GMC; and they have direct relationships with a variety of journalists, from both national organisations and specialist publications.
There are 4 different roles within this team and the staff resources have been allocated as follows:
·  benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-90261068520341956052015-05-17T08:50:00.004+01:002015-05-17T08:50:57.700+01:00Niall Dickson's response.....:)
"The independent Shape of Training review was established by the four governments of the UK and was supported by a number of organisations including Health Education England, The Medical Schools Council, NHS Education Scotland and The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.
It was the GMC’s role as the secretariat to arrange meetings with a whole range of organisations to enable them to discuss the benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-1683547382738162692015-05-11T20:53:00.000+01:002015-05-11T20:53:08.815+01:00Due process, or lack of it, and the Shape of Training
This week the BMJ published my opinion piece on the 'Shape of Training' review:
"The GMC spent more than £4000 on legal fees in resisting my freedom of information request. The court also commented on information obtained from the GMC’s internal correspondence that did not relate to the Shape of Training review: “The evidence was that at one meeting an individual sought an assurance that benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-57896676434618504542015-02-27T10:15:00.001+00:002015-02-27T10:15:46.518+00:00More on Shape and well done Tom Dolphin
Anyone who reads this blog will be aware of the Shape of Training review, irrelevant of this I would strongly advise you have a glance at this excellent piece in the BMJ exposing several critical flaws of the review. It is worth reiterating that Shape's critical flaws include its methodology, its lack of transparency, its flimsy evidence base and its dangerous recommendations.
Itbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-3258003333644572122015-02-05T15:18:00.006+00:002015-02-05T15:52:57.126+00:00The straw men of the 'Shape of Training'
So many straw man have been put forward in an attempt to justify the potentially disastrous 'Shape of Training' (ShOT) review's recommendations, that it is slightly tricky to know where to start. It is also important to acknowledge from the start that it is impossible to discuss these issues logically with some people, much in the same way that it is impossible to debatebenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-610428148049675668.post-62637504535037276102015-02-02T15:32:00.001+00:002015-02-02T15:32:05.167+00:00Please sign on and support high quality medical training!
The Shape of Training was an 'independent' review of medical training chaired by an economist, Professor Greenaway, which reported at the end of 2013 is currently in the process of being implemented by government.The review was less than fully transparent in revealing the potential influence of government during the review process. There are a number of other problems with the benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046328847880324437noreply@blogger.com0