On Monday 11th June 2018, Sir Norman Williams’ much-awaited report on gross negligence manslaughter in healthcare, commissioned by Jeremy Hunt in February 2018, was published. To be found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter, which is a crime, a clinician must be found to have acted in a way that is “truly exceptionally bad”. It is […]
NICE guidelines published last year recommended that all bowel cancer patients should be tested at diagnosis for signs of Lynch syndrome but we know that this isn’t happening in eight out of 10 NHS hospitals in England. It’s absolutely vital that these guidelines are followed because Lynch syndrome, which is an inherited condition, can increase […]
The RSM’s meeting, Medicine and Me – Your Mental Health, which took place over the weekend in London, was really an opportunity for doctors and medical students to come together and offer their perspective on how to improve mental health services for those working in medicine. It is something really important because the problem of […]
On 2 February 2018, a rogue doctor Sudip Sarker was found guilty of fraud by false representations. Three days later he was sentenced to 6 years in prison. In 2011, Sarker applied for the position of Consultant General Surgeon with specialist experience in key hole surgery at the Worcester Acute Hospital Trust. Sarker doctored his […]
In December 2014, Dr Myles Bradbury, a Consultant Paedicatrian, was sentenced to 22 years imprisonment (reduced to 16 on appeal) for abusing 18 children at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge. He would abuse his victims and secretly film what he did using a “spy pen”. Often the parents would be in the same room but behind […]
NHS England is proposing to draw a new line between when the NHS will help someone, and when citizens are required to fall back on their own private resources when it comes to prescriptions for over-the-counter medicines. This may or may not be a good idea, but it certainly shouldn’t be motivated by a funding […]
I’m proud to call myself a so-called ‘Snapchat Surgeon’. At my clinic, we often document plastic surgery by videoing the procedure and uploading the footage to social media. In the case of the app Snapchat, the surgeries are often streamed live to our followers. The sacred bond of respect and trust between a surgeon and […]
Baroness Beeban Kidron OBE, Founder of the children’s charity 5Rights discusses how growing up in a digital world directly impacts on a child’s development. ‘Evidence is growing of the impact of prolonged use of social media on children and young people. Recent US research, based on examining the online activities of more than half a million […]
Latest figures for 2015/6 showed that on average 49,000 people attended major A&E departments in England every day – in winter this figure rockets. Within this pressured environment, demands placed on healthcare professionals are huge. Recent figures show that in the 12-months leading up to September 2016, more than 190,000 medication errors involving the management […]
The NHS complaints system is putting patients at risk and harming doctors’ mental health, according to a new study published in the journal BMJ Open. Researchers at Imperial College, London, have shown, for the first time, an association between the way complaints are handled and symptoms of anxiety, depression, and defensive medical practice in doctors. […]
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