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Mashup Score: 6
After years of underfunding, being undervalued, and issues around pay and working conditions, something finally seems to have changed for doctors. Whisper it softly, but there seem to be signs that they’re acting more collectively against changes they disagree with in the healthcare system. I suspect that much of the credit must go to the younger generation, for speaking up and pushing back against learnt helplessness and reigniting the dedication to change. We’ve seen years of gradual decline. It’s easy to blame the system or pin it on politicians, but this decline in working conditions has been facilitated by many clinicians and, in some cases, doctors in management roles themselves. Over the last 25 years I’ve been in the NHS it’s been fascinating to watch how, in the drive to create a “level playing field,” we’ve managed to level down the whole system, rather than level up. The …
Source: www.bmj.comCategories: General Medicine News, General HCPsTweet
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Mashup Score: 6
After years of underfunding, being undervalued, and issues around pay and working conditions, something finally seems to have changed for doctors. Whisper it softly, but there seem to be signs that they’re acting more collectively against changes they disagree with in the healthcare system. I suspect that much of the credit must go to the younger generation, for speaking up and pushing back against learnt helplessness and reigniting the dedication to change. We’ve seen years of gradual decline. It’s easy to blame the system or pin it on politicians, but this decline in working conditions has been facilitated by many clinicians and, in some cases, doctors in management roles themselves. Over the last 25 years I’ve been in the NHS it’s been fascinating to watch how, in the drive to create a “level playing field,” we’ve managed to level down the whole system, rather than level up. The …
Source: www.bmj.comCategories: General Medicine News, General HCPsTweet
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Mashup Score: 18Invisibility and discrimination harm women from ethnic minorities working in the NHS - 12 day(s) ago
We must proactively confront our biases and reconsider the needs and experiences of women from ethnic minorities working in healthcare to prevent discrimination and harassment in the NHS, writes Fizzah Ali Over 75% of staff working in the NHS are women,1 and they often find themselves navigating sexism. Recent and longer standing evidence highlight the harassment and discrimination women face.2 The additional challenges encountered by women from ethnic minorities working in the NHS consistently go unacknowledged. Women from ethnic minorities face gender related challenges posed in the workplace, in addition to the struggles that come with the racial biases that permeate healthcare and wider society.3 Since becoming a neurology registrar there have been many times where I have not fit into the mould of external expectations. For example, during a weekend on-call shift, I arrived promptly to assess a patient. I stood in front of the paramedic and the patient’s partner, both of whom confr
Source: www.bmj.comCategories: General Medicine News, General HCPsTweet
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Mashup Score: 33Scarlett McNally: Retrofitting simple education into the NHS - 25 day(s) ago
I competed in a karate competition recently and found it a bit like surgery: you spend years perfecting technique and getting to know intuitively what might be effective with each person. The NHS needs to retain and value the experience and intuitive competence of doctors, other senior clinicians, and managers. Educating someone for autonomous practice and the ability to deal with complexity is hard. But other types of educating can sometimes be simple. Knowledge and skills are empowering for staff and patients, as are environments that welcome discussion. In an NHS with minimal money, time, and staff it’s hard to retrofit education and new processes alongside other work, but we can start by focusing on patient education and empowerment. Social media and advertising have changed how people absorb information, how cultures evolve, and what our “norms” are. The …
Source: www.bmj.comCategories: General Medicine News, General Journals & SocietTweet
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Mashup Score: 33Scarlett McNally: Retrofitting simple education into the NHS - 30 day(s) ago
I competed in a karate competition recently and found it a bit like surgery: you spend years perfecting technique and getting to know intuitively what might be effective with each person. The NHS needs to retain and value the experience and intuitive competence of doctors, other senior clinicians, and managers. Educating someone for autonomous practice and the ability to deal with complexity is hard. But other types of educating can sometimes be simple. Knowledge and skills are empowering for staff and patients, as are environments that welcome discussion. In an NHS with minimal money, time, and staff it’s hard to retrofit education and new processes alongside other work, but we can start by focusing on patient education and empowerment. Social media and advertising have changed how people absorb information, how cultures evolve, and what our “norms” are. The …
Source: www.bmj.comCategories: General Medicine News, General Journals & SocietTweet
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Mashup Score: 49NHS funding for a secure future - 1 month(s) ago
Demands on the NHS continue to increase, and difficult decisions have to be made on how much we want to spend and how to finance that spending to ensure its stability Worries about the sustainability of NHS funding have a long history. Just five years after the NHS opened its doors, amid concern about escalating spending on the NHS, the then Conservative government set up an independent commission led by Claude Guillebaud to examine the costs of the NHS. That inquiry found that spending remained sustainable even though it had increased, and actually recommended that extra investment was needed in hospitals and community services.1 At the time of the Guillebaud inquiry, NHS spending represented 3.2% of gross domestic product (GDP).2 More than seven decades later, spending has outstripped the growth in GDP so that by 2022 we spent around 9.3% of GDP on the NHS.3 This growth has been driven in part by additional demand (the UK population has increased by around a fifth since the 1950s, fo
Source: www.bmj.comCategories: General Medicine News, General HCPsTweet
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Mashup Score: 45NHS funding for a secure future - 1 month(s) ago
Demands on the NHS continue to increase, and difficult decisions have to be made on how much we want to spend and how to finance that spending to ensure its stability Worries about the sustainability of NHS funding have a long history. Just five years after the NHS opened its doors, amid concern about escalating spending on the NHS, the then Conservative government set up an independent commission led by Claude Guillebaud to examine the costs of the NHS. That inquiry found that spending remained sustainable even though it had increased, and actually recommended that extra investment was needed in hospitals and community services.1 At the time of the Guillebaud inquiry, NHS spending represented 3.2% of gross domestic product (GDP).2 More than seven decades later, spending has outstripped the growth in GDP so that by 2022 we spent around 9.3% of GDP on the NHS.3 This growth has been driven in part by additional demand (the UK population has increased by around a fifth since the 1950s, fo
Source: www.bmj.comCategories: General Medicine News, General HCPsTweet
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Mashup Score: 175Tackling poverty should have equal priority with lowering waiting lists, says King’s Fund - 1 month(s) ago
Poverty is taking a heavy toll on the UK’s health and NHS services, and tackling it should be as much of a priority as bringing down waiting lists, the King’s Fund has said. A new analysis by the think tank, published on 18 March, illustrates the relation between poverty and NHS services.1 Commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the report shows that people in poverty find it harder to live a healthy life, have to live with greater illness, face barriers to getting timely care, are more likely to need expensive emergency treatment, and die younger than the rest of the population. The cost of travelling, difficulties in getting access to online services, and paying NHS charges all leave patients struggling to get NHS diagnoses and treatment, it warns. Wider government and societal actions are needed to tackle …
Source: www.bmj.comCategories: General Medicine News, General Journals & SocietTweet
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Mashup Score: 14Scalpels and spotlights: bringing theatre to the theatre - 2 month(s) ago
Stepping into the rehearsal space at the National Theatre in London felt like being back at my first school disco. I fumbled around the edge of the room, feeling awkward just blinking, before shrinking into the safety of an empty seat. A strange happenstance of serendipity had got me there. In my first year at medical school I shared a student flat with eight others—an odd mix of people that just seemed to gel. There was the computer science student who ate only oven cooked Hula Hoops, a dentist whom I literally never met, and a lovely guy who was sadly killed in a car crash during the summer break. And then there was Tim—a kind, English literature student from the Welsh valleys who didn’t let his stammer get the better of him. He was cool, …
Source: www.bmj.comCategories: General Medicine News, General HCPsTweet
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Mashup Score: 2Why the next government needs to support clinical research - for our health and the NHS - Cancer Research UK - Cancer News - 2 month(s) ago
With a potential exodus of clinical researchers ahead, policymakers have to act quickly. Our latest workforce survey shows what’s needed.
Source: news.cancerresearchuk.orgCategories: General Medicine News, Oncologists2Tweet
"Looking at some #NHS issues today, something has certainly changed. Doctors are increasingly speaking out." We should aim to improve the working lives of all staff, not just our own, says @parthaskar https://t.co/dXeJYaVQ9f