Social justice and the social determinants of health are major determinants of health and disease. Physicians can be involved in many ways in ameliorating these conditions. ... Read More »

Development has two components; in order, first is technical skills (hard) and second is personal (so called soft). Technical skills in my view has two steps core professional skills (how to do the best) and core generic skills (how to do the best for everyone, every time, everyday). Many of us are good at our core ... Read More »

The government in their attempts to encourage the people of the UK into a better state of health have a number of targets which we are encouraged to meet. 5-a-day is probably the best known of these and with a little careful planning is quite achievable. But how many other targets have been set, do you even know about them? ... Read More »

TO Strike or not to Strike-That is the question facing some of us who are not members of the BMA, and did not take part in the vote for industrial action. Are we playing into the hands of the Government by calling for industrial action? ... Read More »

HSMR Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio M HEMADRI Preface This is written on the basis of my understanding of the HSMR after attending a mini-course at the International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare, Amsterdam 2011, taught by Sir Brian Jarman the original designer of HSMR, Paul Aylin of the Imperial College ... Read More »

If you work in a hospital inpatient setting you’re probably quite used to prescribing blood products for your patients. recently at work we reached the point where we could only guarantee to conduct 4 of the 5 planned surgery cases because our blood bank did not at that point have sufficient blood stocks in to enable ... Read More »

Today the forum continued with the EFPT working groups, which ranged this year from transcultural psychiatry to psychotherapy training to physician health. The working groups are an integral part of how the EFPT has an influence on training of psychiatrists across Europe, via audit, research, recommendations and position ... Read More »

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) published results of the first national survey on antibiotic use in England. The overall message is a positive one - that there has been a drop in the number of HCAIs between 2006 and 2011, from 8.2% to 6.4%. However, there has been a change in the relative proportions of suspect organisms, with Enterobacteriacaeae (mostly E. Coli) infections on the rise. ... Read More »

I am in Sorrento in Italy, for the European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees (EFPT) forum, which is from the 21st-26th May (I’m on the right below, with my colleagues Dr Marisa Casanova-Dias, left, and Dr Lisa Collin, middle, both also UK psychiatrists). Don’t feel too jealous…it’s raining, when ... Read More »

I'm going to keep this one short and sweet, but am keen to engage the views of my peers on this. Patients smoking 80 cigarettes a day, drinking 100 units of alcohol per week, suffering from depression, low self-esteem or high stress that has been ignored for decades... Then comes that first GP appointment. Now they are ... Read More »