It is official – most doctors believe that Labour has failed to reform the NHS.
An online poll of over 3000 doctors has highlighted the growing disillusionment within the profession. The general consensus is that the billions of pounds injected into the service since 2002 have not been well spent and services have not improved.
The survey also found that twice as many doctors would trust the NHS with David Cameron than with Gordon Brown.
In 1846 Dr Duncan (first Medical Officer for Health) described Liverpool as the most unhealthy town in England – over 160 years later and despite great advances in public health, medical technology, and the establishment of internationally renowned centres for breast and lung cancer, cardiothoracic services and neurosciences, once again Liverpool has been named the country’s unhealthiest city.
There is a growing difference in life expectancy between the rich and poor in Liverpool – with some people living three years less than the England average. Such differences have not been seen since the Victorian era – this is unacceptable – in the 21st century there should be no such difference.
Liverpool is not alone – Northern cities fared badly overall, Manchester was second and Bradford in third place. It could be argued that this is no surprise – of course densely populated urban areas are going to be unhealthy – in which case how come London was named one of the healthiest cities?
There is a clear North-South divide– is this purely due to lifestyle choices? or is the Government failing to address these growing health inequalities and postcode lotteries?
I really don’t care if David Cameron smoked a spliff at Eton – what I do care about are the millions of people with cancer and MS who suffer everyday with pain, vomiting and loss of appetite. Evidence suggests that tetrahydrocannabinol (the main psychoactive ingredient of cannabis) is effective in the treatment of these horrific symptoms. Furthermore, there is evidence that THC is an effective treatment for chronic pain and currently in Canada, Sativex, a cannabis-derived mouth-spray, is licensed to relieve pain in people with multiple sclerosis.
I think there is a strong argument for the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal purposes, however, would highlight the importance of age restriction. There is evidence that exposure to cannabis in adolescence is associated with subsequent psychotic illness and a recent Dutch study found that the chance of teenagers using hard drugs later in life is six times greater among those who use cannabis than among those who don’t.
Some argue that the legalisation of cannabis would lead to an increased incidence but, interestingly enough, the Dutch policy of tolerance has been highly successful with the proportion of adults who have ever used cannabis at 12.3% (half the rate in the USA and less than 1/3 of the similar estimate for Australia).
According to Pat Hewitt – if you are overweight or smoke you will be denied operations. I know that such patients are at higher risk of operative and postoperative complications, however, I do not think it is right to withhold treatment from a patient based on their lifestyle choices.
Since 1 in 5 adults are clinically obese – this policy could provide great savings for cash strapped hospitals and NHS trusts. In fact hospitals could save even more money if they didn’t do any operations at all!
A report published today by the Healthcare Commission which looked into NHS complaints since July 2004 has found that 54% were related to care surrounding a death. Families complained about receiving contradictory or confusing information about their relative’s condition and about being unprepared for a relative’s death.
On the Wirral, St John’s Hospice provides specialised palliative care and support to patients with severe and progressive disease where curative treatment is no longer possible. They also provide crucial family support and bereavement services.
Hospices in England receive on average just 33% of their income from the Government – given the fact that they provide 79% of adult inpatient palliative care beds in the UK and provide a range of valuable services including symptom relief, emotional support and increase quality of life- this is not good enough.
The Government has just launched a stratergy for improving end of life care, the aim of which is to “improve the quality of care at the end of life for all patients and enable more patients to live and die in the place of their choice”. So why is there not one representative from the hospice movement on the 27 member board????
Pat Hewitt did a live webchat today. Members of the public were encouraged to quiz the Health Secretary about the future of the UK’s public services.
Unfortunately I was unable to take part in the moderated webchat but I’m sure Pat was inundated with questions about ward closures, cuts in mental health services, job losses…. (I could go on). I would have asked the Health Secretary if she agreed with a chief government advisor who suggested last year that current medical students should quit now because there will not be enough jobs in the future!
The NHS spends about £7bn a year on drugs – deaths due to adverse drug reactions are on the increase and cost the NHS an estimated £500m a year. Since 80% of adverse drug reactions are avoidable and most mis-prescribing is due to a lack of knowledge – it seems extraordinary that the Department of Health is to cut funding which enables medical students to have a free copy of the British National Formulary (BNF). The BNF contains prescribing information including the side effects and interactions of the drugs available in the NHS – and plays a vital role in medical training and practice. This money saving scheme is shortsighted – the longterm costs (financial and mortality) could be devastating.
p.s. The BNF costs about £24.95 – this cut to funding will just contribute to the increasing financial burden faced by medical students.
Sorry for the lack of posts – it’s not my fault, blame global warming!
No seriously, I’ve been suffering from a cold the last few days and I have just read that it’s probably because of climate change.
“Scientists at the Common Cold Centre at Cardiff University think that the warmer climate is causing people to catch milder infections – the body doesn’t produce enough antibodies to fight off the virus completely or prevent it coming back – as a result you get the same cold again and again!”
So the next time you get into your gas guzzler or jet off abroad, if the consequences of floods, droughts, heat waves, hurricanes, tornados and species extinction don’t put you off – just think about the runny noses!
I was horrified to read in the times that a doctor has advised British Muslims not to vaccinate their children because most vaccines contain products derived from animal and human tissue. This comes days after the World Health Organization announced that deaths from measles have fallen by 60% worldwide since 1999 thanks to vaccination. I think that it is totally irresponsible to discourage parents from vaccinating their children – the uptake of the MMR jab fell as a result of the suggestion that there might be an association with autism, leading to outbreaks of measles and the first death from measles since 1992.
Vaccination saves lives.
Anyway, talking about Vaccination schedules – did you know that in England & Wales Pneumococcal Vaccination has been recently added to the schedule?
Childhood obesity continues to be a growing (please mind the pun!) problem in the UK.
Although we have all seen the headline catching initiatives introduced by this government – they have clearly failed to have an impact.
Obesity is associated with severe morbidity and already costs the NHS an estimated £3.6 billion per year. By 2020, the predicted prevalence of childhood obesity in the UK will be in excess of 50%.
Although I believe in the principle of minimal state intervention – I do feel that the government can and should do a lot more to encourage healthy eating and increase activity to prevent obesity in children. The current celebrity-endorsed gimmicks are only short term solutions to a major problem.
Last week I saw two patients under 16 who were clinically obese – I was sad to learn that there are no specific services on the Wirral available to help them. Why not???
