Hospital doctor

Junior doctors reject negotiated contract proposals

Junior doctors in England have rejected the government’s latest contract proposals following the results of a referendum announced on 5 July 2016.…

Doctor and pharmacist payments by pharma revealed in database

An online database of payments and benefits in kind made by the pharmaceutical industry to doctors, pharmacists and nurses was published for the first time on 30 June 2016, enabling the public to see how individual professionals are paid by the pharmaceutical industry.…

Junior doctors’ contract deal agreed

A deal has been reached between UK government negotiators and the British Medical Association (BMA) over the junior doctor contract, arbitration body the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), which facilitated ten days of negotiations, announced on 18 May 2016. …

Studies raise doubts about link between weekend deaths at hospitals and staffing levels

Association between hospital doctor staffing levels at weekends and patient mortality has been ruled out, according to the results of two studies.  Both studies, published in The Lancet (online, 10 May 2016), confirmed that any link between mortality rates and weekend admissions was a com…

Both sides hold firm ahead of junior doctors’ strike

Last minute attempts to end the planned two day strike by junior doctors in England on 26 and 27 April 2016 – which includes the removal of hospital emergency cover – looked likely to fail on the eve of the industrial action.…

Feedback interventions fail to reduce prescribing errors among junior doctors

A set of interventions designed to reduce prescribing error rates among junior doctors, including a system for identifying the prescriber and offering feedback, has failed to have a significant impact on error rates, the findings of a study show.…

A Lonely Planet-style guide to going into hospital

‘Going into hospital? A guide for patients, carers and families’ by Oliver Warren, Bryony Dean Franklin and Charles Vincent. Pp ix+297 Paperback £14.99, e-book £9.99. Oxon: Eastdown Publishing; 2015. ISBN 978 0 9933122 0 5.…

Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill will not serve healthcare professionals

A bill claiming to help medical practitioners access innovative treatments has healthcare professions scratching their heads — because it wasn’t needed in the first place.…

Legal protection for whistleblowers over hospital errors to be introduced in England

Anyone who speaks up following a hospital mistake will be given legal protection, England’s health secretary Jeremy Hunt announced at the Global Patient Safety Summit held in London on 9–10 March 2016.…

Junior doctors plan further strikes as judicial review launched

The trade union body the British Medical Association says it is set to launch a judicial review into the government’s decision to impose a new contract on junior doctors from August 2016, as it announced that more strikes are planned.…