Sunday, January 30, 2005

Hospital Doctor, 27 January 2005

For those who are not familiar with this weekly newspaper, it as a freebie which arrives on my doorstep every Friday. It is published by Elsevier Healthcare Publications, a well known medical publisher, and is definitely a cynical, left-wing mag. It usually contains some gem worthy of reading if only to reassure me that I am not the only one who feels the way I do about what is happening to hospital medicine in the UK.

This week, for instance, there are several pieces of note:

FEARS MOUNT FOR JUNIOURS' TRAINING
There has been a dramatic reduction in trainees surgeons' exposure to elective operations. In the UK, for instance, orthopaedic SpR's are now doing 20% fewer hip replacements (40% less in the Trent region), and 19% fewer knee replacements. Why? Because of the reduction in junior doctors' hours and the large-scale transfer of elective operations to the independent sector which the government enforced on us thanks to the EU and as part of their plan to dismantle the NHS. The knock-on effect is obvious: NHS patients of the future will be treated by a cadre of inexperienced consultants. God save us all.

ON-CALL ROOMS CULL
This is another example of the bullying tactics used by hospital management. On-call rooms, where doctors used to be able to sleep when not busy at night, are still being closed with little or no discussion as part of the move to full-shift working. New hospitals are being built without any on-call rooms. What has been offered instead? Generally nothing, and in some cases airline-style lie-back chairs placed somewhere quiet .... such as the Doctors' Mess! When I first saw this muted in Hospital Doctor some time ago, I thought it was a (sick) joke. Little did I know. Why do we allow these things to happen?

PRIVATISATION GIVES TRUSTS LITTLE CHOICE
We all know that the government is backing increasing independent sector involvement in the NHS as part of their anti-NHS dogma. For instance, the Department of Health spent £2.3m in Trent in advance of operations to be done in private treatment centres. Patients in fact chose to have their operations at NHS hospitals, so the local PCT ended up by paying twice. Why are they doing this?

NHS PENSION REFORM
I am sure that the final salary pension scheme is about to be scrapped and the normal age of retirement will be increased from 60 to 65 years irrespective of any consultation process which will prove to be the usual sham. Why? Certainly not for the benefit of those of us working for the NHS, but for the usual reason "to save money". I certainly don't want to work until I am 65, and even 60 will be hard-going the way the NHS is deteriorating. We should all say "NO"! I wonder how these proposals compare with the pension scheme of MPs' and the civil service elite?

I could go on, but why not dip into Hospital Doctor yourself. You can access it on the internet at http://www.hospital-doctor.net.

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