Showing posts with label Junior Doctors Contract. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Junior Doctors Contract. Show all posts

Sunday, 21 February 2016

22nd February 2016

This week I met with Ace Thindal @athindal who is part of the team rolling out electronic medical records @ASPHFT @Your_eMR


We're used to a paperless working environment in the private sector, so this system feels very comfortable but of course on a completely different scale. It was a great opportunity to play around with the system and have some tiny input into making it even more friendly to work with. 

Responses to Contract Imposition

The general drift has been negative regarding the Health Secretary's decision to impose a contract. I have collated a few responses here


Surgical Royal Colleges Joint Statement @RCSnews: 





... and my personal favourite, BOA @BritOrthopaedic: http://www.boa.ac.uk/latest-news/boa-statement/

A summary of the 2016 contract is here: 


Surgeon of the Week

Meet Orthopaedic Associate Specialist Alastair Cameron-Smith, seen here with Theatre Practitioner Sabina Khadka: 


Alastair has been a fixture at @ASPHFT since his SHO days at the old Ashford Hospital. Alastair has always welcomed trainees to his operating theatre & last year received a Highly Commended runner-up certificate in the 2014 Surgical Trainer of the Year Award. He is also a qualified pilot.

Forthcoming Attractions

Trainee Voice Sessions

RCS @RCSnews is developing a programme of Trainee Voice Sessions to run alongside its current Regional Events Programme. Sessions will be held across the UK either as part of existing events or as stand alone session. These sessions aim to help us:

  • Understand the concerns of junior doctors and their experience of training and their work environment.
  • Improve the quality of surgical training and support surgical trainees throughout the process.
  • Continue to support trainees and how vital they are to the NHS. We believe the Government should do more to value their professionalism

This Saturday it's the RCP Medical Careers Day. This is a good opportunity to see what's out there that might grab your interest https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/events/rcp-medical-careers-day?platform=hootsuite


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Sunday, 14 February 2016

15th February 2016

An introspective post this week: it has been a rather depressing week not only nationally but locally and this page is the upshot...

I am grateful to Dr Alice O'Neill, @alicerawding, for drawing the first topic to my attention 

Whistle-blowing 

We should do it, right? We are obligated to speak up if we see unsafe practice or patients at risk, aren't we?

In Domain 2 of "Good Medical Practice" the GMC @gmcuk highlights the need to respond to risks to safety:

  1. 24. You must promote and encourage a culture that allows all staff to raise concerns openly and safely.1, 11
  2. 25. You must take prompt action if you think that patient safety, dignity or comfort is or may be seriously compromised.

Read the story of Dr Chris Day, @drcmday, and then have a long hard think:


This is actually a question we ask at Core Surgery Interviews: what would you do if the next doctor on shift doesn't turn up? Never imagined it would have this result in real life.

Juniors doctors have vanishingly little protection, despite the laudable efforts of Sir Robert Francis and every single thing we learned from the Mid Staffs episode. In fact, as Hunt is hellbent on destroying all safeguards in his imposed contract, junior doctors are now temporary workers with few rights, 'Guardian' or no.

And if that doesn't make you pause, here are some more (in)famous whistleblowing cases:
1) Radiology Manager Sharmila Chowdhury @sharmilaxx
2) Paediatrician Dr David Drew @nhswhistleblowr
3) Cardiologist Dr Raj Mattu
... and 4) the granddaddy of them all, Dr Steve Bolsin, @SteveBolsin, the anaesthetist whose simple audit  blew the whistle on paediatric heart surgery in Bristol in 1995

Makes terrible reading, doesn't it. I expect we all think that if we were faced with an untenable position, we would all speak up, safe in the knowledge that we would be protected by that loudly trumpeted "Whistleblowers Policy". Unfortunately we are learning that that Policy can readily be thrown out of the window and it is making for a very unhappy department.

I wonder if we'll find out just how unhappy when the embargo is lifted on the 2015 Staff Survey and it gets published in 23rd February. 


I always fill mine out, even though I'm aware it is a futile gesture. The majority of the returns I understand are filled out by non-clinical staff: there is a misconception that because the surveys are bar-coded responses can be traced back to the writer but that is not the case. At least, the things I've written have never come back to bite me. And obviously nothing has changed either.

The bar-codes are to allow Picker to chase up non-responders but it does have the effect in hierarchical clinical structures of putting people off or at the very least being guarded with their responses.

Junior Doctors' Contract


Hunt was always going to impose this, wasn't he. No matter what agreements Sir David Dalton made with @theBMA. Quite certain it will fail its Equality Impact Assessment as it is outrageously unfair to anyone on career breaks (eg maternity leave) but the enormous message it sends out about the disposability of the workforce is horrifying. Thank goodness he's commissioning an Enquiry into Junior Doctor Morale. How else will we have a clue as to why 54,000 educated intelligent people are unhappy (?!)

Goodbye of the Week

Sr Fletcher @12dargue wanted to steal away with little fuss after 29 years of NHS service. Ha ha. 
Obligatory departmental tea party followed by the much more traditionally Orthopaedic wake in the pub...







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Friday, 6 November 2015

9th November 2015

Olympic Gold Medallist opens MRI

Lots of news this week: starting with the opening of the new MRI scanner at Ashford. You may have seen my pics of it going up in a matter of days: well it's been up and running since 19th October and on Tuesday it was formally opened by double Olympic sailing gold medalist Sarah Ayton OBE @sarahayton, here with CEO Suzanne Rankin @suzrankin

Sarah was born in Ashford Hospital, learned to sail on Staines reservoir and has even had a head MRI after a bump with a boom so the perfect person to declare the new machine ready for action. It did raise the hilarious conundrum of how to ceremoniously cut the red ribbon if you can't take scissors into the magnet but that was neatly solved...
...by moving the ribbon...

Blowing our T&O trumpet

Hugely proud of Arshad Khaleel and the trainees he has energised with his infectious enthusiasm achieving FIVE podium presentation of their research projects at the British Trauma Society Meeting in Keele this week. Persuaded Arshad to take a @britishtrauma selfie with Ankit Desai @ankdes1 and Rob Boyd @mrbobramsay

This is an incredible achievement: our trainees are not only working their maximum hours to provide excellent patient care but they are also studying for exams AND putting the hours in on projects such as these. Immense.

*** BREAKING NEWS ***

I am BURSTING with pride for our Core Surgical Trainees: Every Single One of them who sat the MRCS B exam PASSED!

Huge congratulations to our junior doctors who have now shed that 'Dr' to become 'Miss' and 'Mr': Sophie, Dan, Kamran and Asad. Will do more on this next blog, but couldn't wait to share the glorious news as it broke Friday.

Surgeon(s) of the Week

Not long now before we formally fuse with the Royal Surrey @royalsurrey but close links have existed for years between the surgical specialities of both hospitals and this week Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon Mike Lemon was the latest to come up the A3 to join with our own Paul Trikha in an exciting procedure, a meniscal transplant. 

Forthcoming Attractions

The date is set: the @HE_KSS Regional Heat of 'Are You Cut Out For It?' will be on Thursday December 3rd at 6pm in the Fracture Clinic of the Rowley Bristow Unit. All CT2s can enter and the winners will go forward to the @RCSNews Final where first prize is £1,000

And finally...

It's been a strange week for surprise emails. The GMC has written to us all regarding potential industrial action and some junior doctors have had a letter from Jeremy Hunt inserted into their eportfolio mailboxes (@JRCPTB are investigating as there could be a data breach). I add here the generous and thoughtful letter written by Professor Pandit, Chair of the Oxford Medical Staff Cttee. I hope it reproduces but if not, it is on twitter and I hope you take strength from it: https://twitter.com/doctor_oxford/status/662317129891467264

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Wednesday, 23 September 2015

28th September 2015

This week I've been on a course on site, learning about being a Case Investigator. This is a role to investigate facts when looking into concerns regarding healthcare professionals and maintaining high professional standards (MHPS).

Last year I was involved in a pilot scheme commissioned by @HE_KSS looking into Bullying and Undermining, and this week's course was a natural extension, looking into how  concerns such as this are researched and addressed. 

Here are DME Dr Peter Martin (my educational boss!) and Divisional Director of TASCC & DTTO (ie amongst other things, Surgery, so my clinical boss!) ENT surgeon Mr John Hadley on the course with me:
It was a highly though-provoking few days. In the Trust at any one time 6-7 healthcare professionals are going through this process and it's so important to treat everyone involved with care, compassion and professionalism. 

This Week's Headlines

When I started this blog, my primary aims were to engage and inform my junior colleagues training in surgical posts. As Surgical Tutor, I'm finding it nigh on impossible to adopt the position of RCS England and make no comment on the #juniorcontract that could be imposed in August 2016 by @NHSEngland.

My bad.

So apologies to @asphft but I cannot avoid reference to headlines such as these:
Full article: 
http://t.co/sv4bebBsK1

Full article: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/numbers-of-nhs-doctors-registering-to-work-overseas-could-reach-unprecedented-record-10511755.html

We are going through turbulent times. All I would say to you is - be informed. Read first hand. Always better to make a decision based on the whole paper, not just the abstract.

So here are some references. The DDRB itself:


... and blogs from @coffeeheadaches: 
... and from @PsychiatrySHO:

Here are the Royal College positions:
@RCGP
@RCPlondon 

Surgeon of the Week

This week's superstar may be an unfamiliar face but you can bet newbie Consultant Spinal Surgeon Oscar Garcias-Casas is already making a big noise. A Consultant in Spain for 12 years already, Oscar started with us nearly a year ago to work with Chris Schofield ahead of Chris's retirement from the NHS. He is seen here with Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist Mary Burns:

Oscar has expanded the Spinal Service @ASPHFT allowing more spinal patients than ever to be looked after closer to home. He will be joined in three months by another new colleague (more about that another time). His patient training methods have already won praise from our junior teams.

Forthcoming Attractions


BMJ Careers Fair
Business Design Centre October 23-24th


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