Patients with musculoskeletal conditions causing pain do not currently have direct access to physiotherapy on the NHS, but perhaps they should. A new pilot trial at Keele University in the UK has found that patients who can arrange to see physiotherapists without going through their GP (the current situation) reported benefits without overwhelming the service. […]
GPs are in the vanguard when it comes to deciding the treatment options for people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and they often have to make decisions after just a few minutes with a patient complaining of typical symptoms like pain, diarrhoea and bloating. Unfortunately, too often, GPs refer patients straight to secondary line specialists, who […]
Informed consent in medicine is essential. In March 2015, the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board, which raised the legal standard for what informed consent actually means. The case has shaken the medical profession. Dr Daniel Sokol, barrister and ethicist, discusses its significance to patients and their relatives. Sinister beginnings On 19th August 1947, 20 […]
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Heart attack symptoms may have been missed in one in six heart attack patients admitted to hospital in England who later died, according to a new study published in The Lancet Public Health. The authors, from Imperial College London, say more research is urgently needed to establish whether it is possible to predict the risk […]
Around one in every 2,000 people has Age-related Macular Degeneration at 60. However, by the age of 90 it affects one person in five. We are all living longer so the number of people affected is increasing. There are however, quite simple steps to take to lessen the impact of macular conditions. These include changes […]
Nurse Helen Cowan talks about starvation, dehydration and death in hospitals. “Kill by mouth” read a recent headline in the Sun newspaper. Readers were informed that “malnutrition was mentioned on the death certificates of 297 patients who died in hospital during 2015; dehydration was cited for 429 patients. For care homes, the figures were 54 and […]
Immunotherapy, which was first trialled on hay fever patients in London in 1911, has an excellent record in helping reduce allergy symptoms. But how long it works after treatment stops seems to depend of how long patients receive the therapy, which involves increasing exposure to grass pollen over time. This is the conclusion of researchers at […]
In my experience as a clinical nutritional therapist, there is a modern epidemic of adrenal fatigue particularly among women who are nearing the menopause. These are the ‘have-it-all generation’ who are often holding down full-time challenging jobs while juggling childcare and caring for elderly parents, as well as struggling to pay mortgages, school fees and […]
In Cast Away, the epic survival drama film, Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is stranded on a deserted tropical island for four years, with a volleyball named Wilson as his only friend. In the nursing home, residents are sometimes abandoned for years on end. In fact, there are a surprising number of similarities between Chuck Noland’s […]
In the latest Tom Hanks movie, Pilot Sully was a hero as he landed the aircraft on the Hudson River, saving all on board. Crash investigators, however, questioned whether he had made an error of judgement, and whether he could in fact have landed safely at a nearby airport. As nurses, we often have to […]