NEWS DIGEST VIEWPOINT
Action Alliance has produced best practice guidance on the use of antipsychotics. For copies of these resources and for more information on antipsychotics, visit the Alzheimer's Society website.
GDC reviews core standards THE GDC is asking for feedback on
its core standards for dental professionals in advance of a formal consultation. Standards for Dental Professionalswas first published in May 2005 and sets out the principles that dental professionals agree to abide by as GDC registrants. Supplementary guidance is provided in accompanying booklets on specific areas of responsibility for registrants, such as patient consent and dental team working. This guidance applies to all GDC
registrants, although it was originally drafted before dental nurses, dental technicians, clinical dental technicians and orthodontic therapists were registered with the Council. The GDC is asking
for feedback in order to determine whether the standards guidance remains fit for purpose and also how it should be made available in the future. More specifically the GDC want to know how often dental professionals refer to standards guidance,
whether there should be
separate guidance for each registrant group and what format is best. A simple online questionnaire can be
found on the GDC website. This exercise will be followed by a more formal consultation as part of ongoing research with professionals and patients.
obligations. Access at
http://tinyurl.com/662xnj2 l SIGN APP FOR GUIDELINES ON THE GO Smartphone and tablet users can now access clinical guidelines on the move with the new free SIGN app. The new app launches quick reference guides
SUMMER 2011 Beginning with the ability to fax
By Dr Ivor Felstein, Retired Consultant Geriatrician
It’s good to talk
BACK in 1969, when Richard Nixon was the US president and Hippies wore their ‘flowers for peace’ in the streets of Washington DC, I arrived in the United States to speak at an International Congress on the problems of caring for an ageing population. Coming from a UK health service free at the point of delivery, I was soon enlightened on a healthcare system which demanded hard cash for all treatment of sickness and disease. A cogent example which struck home
was demonstrated when I stopped off en route to visit a relative in New York City who had a cardiac problem. She was suffering from progressive heart failure due to heart valve disease. I was well aware that this could have been improved by the new cardiac surgery of the day. However my relatives’ family could not afford the costs that, in England, would have been met by the NHS. I thought this to be a sad state of
affairs but held my tongue since I was “just a visitor”. Curiously, however some US citizens that I spoke to were making jibes at good medical practice being overtaken by ‘socialism’ or even cryptic communism in the UK! Another example of “need to watch health costs closely” was demonstrated in my relative’s regular medical consultations. She explained to me how phoning the doctor for medical advice was far cheaper than attending his surgery. I recall this discussion now because I suspect that our ongoing financial problems in the NHS today may soon lead to an increase in similar cost-saving measures in patient-doctor interactions.
information to and fro, we have moved on to email facilities and unlimited speaking and texting by mobile phone. The arrival of Skype with visualisation and sound adds still more possibilities for patient-doctor interaction and linkage for “non-presence of the body” types of consultation. We have always taught medical students, quite correctly, that taking an assiduously careful history at the start of a consultation offers the best chance of coming to a quick diagnosis. So aren’t there some all too obvious difficulties with this new and exciting rush of technology? Can the non-medical descriptive powers of the patient (or other relative or carer on their behalf) over the phone or in e- mail or text ensure an accurate list of findings is put forward? What if the patient or history teller stammers or has a strong foreign accent? Next is the invariable loss of privacy and dignity in the course of using any electronic communication. What about patients who are hard of hearing, or unable to see clearly and well, or perhaps troubled by memory loss, or reticent to ‘expose’ not only their private parts but also personal habits and intimate practices on a machine? Further, there are potential leaks of
information in the constant to and fro of electronic media. That fact alone implies the need for secure file transfer methods such as server gated cryptography, or CPU throttling for ‘safe’ medical information transfer or whatever hack-proof solution the IT boffins can come up with. We shall see soon enough in this new millennium if “talking” to the doctor no longer necessarily means a face-to-face consultation in a busy surgery after a sometimes long journey from home and still longer wait to be seen. Meanwhile… see/hear/touch/buzz/type /Skype/call you soon.
(QRG) of recently published guidelines on topics including early rheumatoid arthritis, venous thromboembolism, stroke, diabetes, obesity and diagnosis and pharmacological management of Parkinson’s disease. Find out more at
www.sign.ac.uk.
l VACUUM STERILISERS NOT MANDATORY Dentists in Scotland will not be required to use vacuum sterilisers as there is a lack of evidence on increased patient safety, the Scottish Health Technologies Group (SHTG) announced in a recent statement. The statement by SHTG
means that non-vacuum phase autoclaves can continue to be used in primary care settings. Dr Robert Kinloch, Chair of the BDA’s Scottish Dental Practice Committee, said: “The BDA applauds this commonsense decision, which has been taken on the basis of available evidence”.
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