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Blog posts written during November 2010

Best cardio doctors in UK

29 November 2010 by Nikoletta

A new major report has found that heart surgery in England and Wales has 25% fewer deaths after operations compared to the rest of Europe, despite surgeons in England treating more emergency and elderly patients.

The comprehensive report compared data on cardiac surgery across 23 countries and the findings from the report revealed that patients in the NHS in England and Wales were 25% more likely to survive their operation. Furthermore, patients in England and Wales also recovered faster than the European average.

This means that around 250 more patients survive surgery each year because their operations were carried out in England and Wales.

The report highlighted that patients recovered faster and were discharged from hospital two days sooner compared to the average across Europe. The success rate of heart surgery in England and Wales saves on average the NHS at least £6.4m a year.

Experts said, “The data from England and Wales was more impressive because the countries submitted the most data and because surgeons here were more likely to conduct operations as emergency cases and on particularly elderly patients.” 

In England and Wales, people in their 80s are now routinely offered heart surgery.

The report, which covers over one million heart operations, was published by The European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery and compiled by a team at Manchester University.

The compiled data from England and Wales compared the average across 23 countries but not against individual countries. By compiling and comparing data, surgeons hope that the results will highlight where improvements can be made.

The death rate for coronary artery bypass surgery was 2.4 per cent across the 23 countries when the patient’s age and other complicating factors were taken into account. By comparison, the death rate in England was 1.8 per cent, Scotland 2.2 per cent and Wales 1.1 per cent.

David Taggart, President of the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain and Ireland, said, “UK cardiac surgeons are very proud of the fact that they publish the most comprehensive cardiac surgery data in Europe.”

“This not only demonstrates a strong commitment to quality and transparency but also provides enormous reassurance for patients. The results confirm cardiac surgery in the UK is amongst the very best in Europe and that mortality rates have fallen by half over the past five years as a direct result of the collection, analysis and publication of outcome data.”

“Our European partners should be encouraged that this approach is likely to lead to a similar improvement in results.”

John Black, President of the Royal College of Surgeons, said, “By measuring the quality of what they do, UK cardiac surgeons have significantly reduced the risks that were once associated with complex heart surgery.”

“The many thousands of patients having heart surgery in this country every year may be reassured by the fact that they are getting better and safer care than elsewhere in Europe.”

Nigel Edwards acting chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said, “The results from cardiac database are a source of unalloyed good news for the NHS and patients. Many lives will have been saved as a result of the improvements behind these figures and it is a tribute to the hard work of the NHS staff.

“The NHS often delivers outcomes that are as good and in some cases better than other countries. The aim is to bring about improvements in all aspects of care. One of the features of cardiac database is that it is lead by clinicians and focuses on measuring the right things, in detail, so patients get the best possible care.”

Despite government reform and cutbacks, surgeons within the NHS still provide excellent patient care and lead the way in heart surgery compared the average across Europe. MPP Locums provides doctor recruitment – general and specialist locum doctor jobs, medical jobs for NHS Trusts throughout the UK. 

At MPP Locums, we ensure that all doctors are vigorously checked before being placed in key roles. We provide quality staff to our clients and are regulated by the Care Quality Commission and the NHS Buying Solutions. MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum jobs to the NHS under the National Locum contract starting 1st July 2008 for the next three years.

If you are seeking NHS doctor jobs, doctor jobs, locum cardio doctor jobs, special registrar jobs,consultant cardio locum jobs, SHO jobs contact our registration team by telephone or register on line and be part of the largest and fastest growing specialist medical recruitment agency in the UK. 

The future of Locum GP Jobs?

24 November 2010 by Web Admin

In what is expected to be one of the biggest NHS reforms in decades, it is looking more likely that GPs will be given control of one of the biggest health budgets in the UK.

Under the new plans functionality is being moved from Primary Care Trusts to proposed GP surgeries. This potentially leaves billions of pounds of budget in the control of GPs.

While no one I am sure will question GPs ability to diagnose and treat patients in which they have spent years in medical training and have multiple years of experience in this profession one does have to question the ability to manage hundreds of millions of tax payers money in what needs to be an efficient, value for money, and cost effective process.

As a GP and locum doctor agency MPP locums have years of experience in dealing with the NHS and public sector agency doctor requirements. Historically locum agencies are given locum doctor jobs on a last minute basis or with little or no advance warning. As a result agencies have to have the locum doctors or locum GPs available and ready to work at very short notice. This in many cases is what can only be put is down to lack of planning and organisation. With bookings requested at short notice it allows non framework agencies to charge extreme charge rates to hospitals that have to have a doctor for the vacant locum doctor post at almost any cost.

One has to question with potentially a much higher volume of patients being referred to GP surgeries will the same scenario occur? Are GPs going to be able to manage the business side of running surgeries on a much larger scale and all the economies of scale that should be achieved by scaling up in size, such as driving down prices and seeking volume discounts on drugs and locum GPs.

MPP Locums position is we look to recruit the best locum GPs and locum doctors to fill as many locum doctor jobs and locum GP jobs as possible from the NHS and public sector. The nature of the locum doctor business is that it is at short notice. But with a little better planning better value for money could achieved by the NHS for locum doctors. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for locum GPs and locum GP jobs in the UK. Will the lessons be learned from the current NHS locum inefficiencies? Time will tell.

Dangers of NHS reform

23 November 2010 by Nikoletta

As the government presses ahead with NHS reform, the Royal College of GPs has warned that doctors could be faced with angry patients questioning spending decisions.

Under the NHS reform will see the previously held £80bn of annual funding being handed over to GPs. With this fundamental change of how the NHS is run, Claire Gerada warned “Patients could end up begging doctors for life-saving drugs while drug companies lobby GPs.”

As part of the government’s reform and cutbacks, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has told the NHS to make up to £20bn of savings by 2014.

Mr Lansley believes GPs know what works best and wants to tap into their entrepreneurial spirit to drive improvement.

As part of the government’s reform, the responsibility of deciding who gets treatment from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and primary care trusts in England will move to GPs from 2013.

Claire Gerada, went on further to say, “At worst, the negative impact for GPs could be patients lobbying outside their front door, saying ‘You’ve got a nice BMW car, but you will not allow me to have this cytotxic drug that will give me three more months of life’,”

“I’m concerned that my profession, GPs, will be exposed to lobbying by patients, patient groups and the pharma industry to fund or commission their bit of the service. There could be letters from MPs and patient groups, and begging letters from patients.”

She added, “Patients might think that the decision made about their healthcare will be based on self-interest – GPs saving money for themselves rather than spending it on patients.”

Under the current system, local managers working for the 151 primary care trusts in England hold approximately 80% of the budget.

In the government’s white paper reform, which lays out the radical NHS shake-up, will see much of that responsibility being transferred to GPs working in consortiums across the country. This will see primary care trusts and regional bodies known as strategic health authorities being phased out over the next few years.

But Dr Gerada believes such changes will see the demise of the NHS through these reforms. “I think it is the end of the NHS as we currently know it, which is a national, unified health service, with central policies and central planning, in the way that Aneurin Bevan imagined.”

A Department of Health spokeswoman said, “The reform was a necessity, not an option. We share a common goal with the RCGP that we all want patients to get the best health and care services.”

Shadow Health Secretary John Healey said, “The plans were signalling a break-up of the NHS that will see it move away from a consistency of service that can be accessed whatever people’s means.”

He accused Mr Lansley of “Not listening to warnings from doctors, nurses and health experts to slow down on his high-cost, high risk plans.”

 As the debate on the government’s NHS reform continues, MPP Locums understands the daily challenges our health care professional face in providing quality patient care in an ever changing NHS. 

At MPP Locums, we ensure that all doctors are vigorously checked before being placed in key roles. We provide quality staff to our clients and are regulated by the Care Quality Commission and the NHS Buying Solutions. MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum jobs to the NHS under the National Locum contract starting 1st July 2008 for the next three years.

MPP Locums provides doctor recruitment – general and specialist locum doctor jobs, medical jobs for NHS Trusts throughout the UK. 

If you are seeking NHS doctor jobs, doctor jobs, locum doctor jobs, special registrar jobs, SHO jobs contact our registration team by telephone or register on line and be part of the largest and fastest growing specialist medical recruitment agency in the UK. 

Cancer care at risk

18 November 2010 by Nikoletta

As the government continues to reform the NHS, a leading doctor has warned of the damage that could be done to the standard of cancer treatment in the UK.

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, a former president of the Royal Society of Medicine, said, “The idea of competing hospitals was anathema and there was risk of fragmentation of the NHS.”

Her concerns were raised in light of the government’s reform, which will see groups of GPs managing budgets previously held by primary care trusts who would then commission services for their patients.

Opening a debate on cancer care, Lady Finlay, said, “We face a huge upheaval with GP commissioning which raises more questions than it answers.”

She went on further to add, “She had sat on a committee whose finding led to cancer care centres an cancer units operating within national standards and that since then services had come a long, long way.”

But she warned, “There is a real anxiety that market forces may fragment this progress. Services from screening through primary care into secondary and tertiary care must be planned and integrated.”

“The cancer journey would be a far better pathway if there was integrated planning and patients will live longer and better.”

“Independent living allows them to return to economic activity. If young patients die early it is their children who have scars of bereavement for the rest of their lives.”

“Delivering high quality care depends on cooperation between professionals. The idea of any willing provider and competing hospitals is anathema to the collaborative model of delivering stable high-quality health care.”

“We cannot promote fragmentation, if patient outcomes in cancer are to continue to improve as they have done so dramatically over the last 10 years.”

As the government’s reform of the NHS raises further concerns on patient care, MPP Locums understands the daily challenges our health care professionals face in a reforming NHS. 

MPP Locums provides doctor recruitment – general and specialist locum doctor jobs, medical jobs for NHS Trusts throughout the UK. 

At MPP Locums, we ensure that all doctors are vigorously checked before being placed in key roles. We provide quality staff to our clients and are regulated by the Care Quality Commission and the NHS Buying Solutions. MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum jobs to the NHS under the National Locum contract starting 1st July 2008 for the next three years.

If you are seeking NHS doctor jobs, doctor jobs, locum doctor jobs, special registrar jobs, SHO jobs contact our registration team by telephone or register on line and be part of the largest and fastest growing specialist medical recruitment agency in the UK.

Govt defends NHS reform

16 November 2010 by Nikoletta

In a recent interview, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley defended the Government’s plans to reform the NHS. The radical NHS reform will see GPs playing a more active role in local health care issues which will include managing much of the multimillion pound budgets currently handled by primary care trusts.

Mr Lansley denied the reforms were a gamble and said, “The needs of patients and the resources to meet them should be brought together with GPs in the lead.”

“You have to make decisions about whether you are going to reform or not.”

He also added that Tony Blair admitted in his memoirs that he regretted not pushing harder for change in the public services.

“What this is all about is delivering power into the hands of patients. Shared decision-making between patients and their clinicians is absolutely critical. We have to focus on outcomes, not targets,” he said.

Asked if the shake-up was a high-risk gamble, he replied: “I don’t think it’s a gamble. I think it would be gamble. I think it would be a greater gamble not to reform.”

“GPs in effect make the most important commissioning decisions already.”

“GPs are already in a critical position in terms of commissioning. We need the management of care of patients and the management of resources to meet the needs of patients brought together in one body.”

 As the debate and uncertainty on NHS reform continues, one thing seems certain and that is the government’s commitment to reform the NHS, reduce waste while at the same time protecting frontline services. At MPP Locums, we understand the changing demands of the NHS on our health care professionals. 

MPP Locums provides doctor recruitment – general and specialist locum doctor jobs, medical jobs for NHS Trusts throughout the UK. 

At MPP Locums, we ensure that all doctors are vigorously checked before being placed in key roles. We provide quality staff to our clients and are regulated by the Care Quality Commission and the NHS Buying Solutions. MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum jobs to the NHS under the National Locum contract starting 1st July 2008 for the next three years.

If you are seeking NHS doctor jobs, doctor jobs, locum doctor jobs, special registrar jobs, SHO jobs contact our registration team by telephone or register on line and be part of the largest and fastest growing specialist medical recruitment agency in the UK. 

Locum doctor spend in NHS

10 November 2010 by Nikoletta

According to a report in the telegraph today spend on agency / locum doctors across the NHS has doubled since 2007 an increase of over £200 million.

This per John Black from The Royal College of Surgeons is mainly due to the implementation of the new EU working time directive limiting the number of hours doctors can work to 48 hours per week.

Historically in the medical profession doctor’s especially junior doctors could work up to 80 hours per week as part of their rotation and covering overtime. Since the new directive more doctors are needed to cover the hours that historically would covered by working well in excess of the 48 hours.

With the new directive hospitals will need to rely more on locum agencies to supply doctors at short notice an also possibly to supply long term posts where Trusts are finding it difficult to recruit.

However the two main contentious points will inevitably be quality of the doctors and cost.

MPP Locums are an approved supplier under the Buying Solutions Framework agreement thus all locum doctors we supply must meet all the criteria set down by the NHS. This criteria includes vetting of doctors in relation to, reference checking, CRB checking, occupational health checks and training, qualifications, experience and English language. MPP Locums are confident all our doctors supplied surpass all of the above checks and are more than capable of working to the expectations of hospitals and roles we supply them for.

The second most important issue is price. With the volume of spend across the NHS MPP Locums can guarantee Trusts that our locum charge rates are some of the most competitive and our locum doctor pary rates are the best in the market.

Our business model is to work in partnership with the NHS rather than an organisation the hate using. In some circumstances it can be cheaper to use a locum agency that to employ the doctor on a full time basis. For more information on locum doctor jobs visit www.mpplocums.co.uk   

Supervision of junior doctors

08 November 2010 by Nikoletta

A recent report highlights that patients are being placed at “unnecessary risk” because junior doctors have to work beyond their levels of competence.

The review of doctor training ordered by the government quango Medical Education England (MEE) found trainees are often handling cases that go beyond their level of medical expertise.

The review, led by Professor John Collins at the University of Oxford, analysed the two-year foundation programme for medical trainees, which begins after students graduate from medical school. 

Findings from the review revealed a lack of supervision trainee doctors received in their first two years in the NHS, which must be urgently addressed. 

The review team of 14 experts spoke to junior doctors across England as well as looked at evidence from a range of other sources. 

Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley has asked for quick action on the report.

Introduced in 2005, the study programme was found to be working well in some areas, including the creation of a national, standardised programme for entry into postgraduate medical education.

The positive benefits of the programme include a clear, well-defined and broadly supported national curriculum, with trainees being exposed to a range of medical specialties. However, the review found several areas failing, such as balancing the demands of the service with the fact that doctors are trying to learn. 

Professor John Collins said, “Many exciting things have been done to help these young people integrate into clinical practice. But we also found worrying features – particularly newly qualified doctors employed outside their level of competence and without appropriate supervision.”

“One example was a young doctor who was told us she had recently qualified. She was left to look after 100 very sick patients at nights and weekends and without appropriate cover.”

“That is completely unacceptable. It puts patients at risk and gives these young post-graduates the wrong message that sub-optimal care is condoned.”

“It is difficult to gauge how common it is, but over and over again we heard this message about being asked to fill rosters or attend to patients beyond their level of competence. Even if this is a small number, we must address this.”

Professor Collins, added, “In some cases trainees were being failed by hospital systems, but in other instances they weren’t getting adequate supervision from consultants.”

The report also recommends that the curriculum for junior doctors has an increased emphasis on managing chronic illness.

Dr Tom Dolphin, co-chairman of the British Medical Association’s junior doctors committee, said, “It is incredibly stressful for doctors to be put in this position and it will be inevitably threaten patient safety.”

“Our medical education system produces highly skilled graduates, but they must be properly supported once they begin direct patient care.”

“We also need to urgently investigate problems with the selection of doctors into the programme, the length of work placements and the excessive levels of assessment.” 

Mr Andrew Lansley praised the report as “thorough.” He said, “ I have asked Medical Education to work with the profession, the service and medical royal colleges to take forward the recommendations as swiftly as possible.”

“This will fit with Medical Education England’s ongoing work to improve the quality of training, ensuring that trainees have appropriate supervision and are not undertaking tasks for which they are not competent.”

As the next generation of future doctors complete their training, it is imperative they get all the support and training needed to ensure patients’ lives are not put at risk. With the government’s commitment to frontline service and improving the NHS, MPP Locums understands the pressures our health care professionals face within the NHS. 

MPP Locums ensures that all doctors are vigorously checked before being placed in key roles. We provide quality staff to our clients and are regulated by the Care Quality Commission and the NHS Buying Solutions. MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum jobs to the NHS under the National Locum contract starting 1st July 2008 for the next three years.

At MPP Locums we provide doctor recruitment – general and specialist locum doctor jobs, medical jobs for NHS Trusts throughout the UK. 

If you are seeking NHS doctor jobs, doctor jobs, locum doctor jobs, special registrar jobs, SHO jobs contact our registration team by telephone or register on line and be part of the largest and fastest growing specialist medical recruitment agency in the UK. 

Board test for foreign doctors

03 November 2010 by Nikoletta

In a recent announcement by the Department of Health, will see the NHS Commissioning Board taking responsibility for testing the language and clinical skills of foreign doctors from within the EU.

A spokeswoman said, “The government has announced that it will look at how the NHS Commissioning Board might help strengthen the system of checking that doctors demonstrate language competency.”

“Under the Directive on Professional Qualifications, European qualifications are recognised and it would be unlawful to require EEA doctors to undergo a further test of clinical skills.”

“That said there will need to be an assessment of whether individuals are able to demonstrate the competencies necessary for the role.”

The change in responsibility comes after the case of the German locum Dr Daniel Ubani who killed 70-year old David Gray with a painkiller overdose on his first and only shift in the UK back in February 2008.

After this tragic incident, the General Medical Council struck off Dr Daniel Ubani from the medical register this summer. Speaking after the panel delivered its verdict, Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley said, “He was keen to strengthen checks for overseas doctors working in the UK. I am working closely with the GMC to ensure that foreign healthcare professionals are not allowed to work in the NHS unless they have proven their competence and language skills.”

“We are currently exploring a number of options to put a stop to foreign doctors slipping through the net.”

Mr Andrew Lansley went on further to say, “The government wanted a system where employers could test doctors before employing them without falling foul of European law, which states EU doctors can be registered in the UK without being tested by the GMC.”

“We’re very keen on convincing the EU we can be compliant with the law in spirit and letter if we have a mechanism geared to employment of doctors rather than registration.”

With the government changing on how the UK tests foreign doctors’ on their language and medical skills can only be a good thing for patient care. At MPP Locums we provide doctor recruitment – general and specialist locum doctor jobs, medical jobs for NHS Trusts throughout the UK. 

MPP Locums ensures that all doctors are vigorously checked before being placed in key roles. We provide quality staff to our clients and are regulated by the Care Quality Commission and the NHS Buying Solutions. MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum jobs to the NHS under the National Locum contract starting 1st July 2008 for the next three years.

If you are seeking NHS doctor jobs, doctor jobs, locum doctor jobs, special registrar jobs, SHO jobs contact our registration team by telephone or register on line and be part of the largest and fastest growing specialist medical recruitment agency in the UK. 

NHS reform commissioning

01 November 2010 by Nikoletta

Shadow Health Secretary John Healey warns of the risks of the planned health care reforms. Under the Government’s planned shake-up of the NHS will see 152 Primary Care Trusts being abolished.  

With the government’s NHS reform, Labour claim that, “Big foreign firms are ‘licking their lips’ at the prospect of commissioning billons of pounds of services on behalf of GPs if the controversial NHS reforms go ahead.”

The planned NHS reform will see consortia of GPs assuming responsibility for the commissioning of services for patients from hospitals and other health providers.

However Mr Healey questions the effectiveness of the changes, which he said, “Would cost £3 billion. They would put the NHS under strain and would worry patients and the public.” 

“Is it really sensible to put twice the size of the defence budget in the hands of GPs each year, especially as this is public money, taxpayers’ money to find the health service for the future?”

“GPs are being trained to look after and treat patients; they are not trained as accountants. Some of them will get interested in that.”

“Most will have to have other people doing their contracts, doing their monitoring, doing their financial negotiations for them.”

“This change opens the door to big private healthcare companies, including from America.”

“They are licking their lips and standing by for a potential bonanza if we see these sort of changes going ahead.”

As the NHS reform debate continues, MPP Locums understands the demands our health care professionals face. At MPP Locums we provide doctor recruitment – general and specialist locum doctor jobs, medical jobs for NHS Trusts throughout the UK. 

MPP Locums ensures that all doctors are vigorously checked before being placed in key roles. We provide quality staff to our clients and are regulated by the Care Quality Commission and the NHS Buying Solutions. MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum jobs to the NHS under the National Locum contract starting 1st July 2008 for the next three years.

If you are seeking NHS doctor jobs, doctor jobs, locum doctor jobs, special registrar jobs, SHO jobs contact our registration team by telephone or register on line and be part of the largest and fastest growing specialist medical recruitment agency in the UK. 

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