NEWS DIGEST
the GMC to investigate concerns about a doctor’s language skills and apply appropriate sanctions where concerns arise after registration. All of these new checks will mean that
for the first time there will be a comprehensive system so that European doctors wanting to work for the NHS will have to demonstrate their ability to speak English when applying for a job. This will close a loophole that meant, while doctors from outside the EU could face language tests, those from within the EU did not. The announcement has been welcomed
by the General Medical Council. Chief executive Niall Dickson said: “If doctors cannot speak English to a safe standard then the GMC must be able to protect patients by preventing them from practising in the UK. At present we can do that for doctors who have qualified outside Europe but we cannot do it for doctors within the European Union.”
Medical registrar workload crisis
THE workload of medical registrars is at crisis point and poses a “major threat to high quality hospital care”, the Royal Col- lege of Physicians has warned. The stark warning comes in the RCP’s
new report Hospital workforce: Fit for the future? Researchers found 37 per cent of medical registrars described their workload as “unmanageable”, while 59 per cent said it was “heavy”. This compares to less than five per cent of general practice registrars who said their own workload was either heavy or unmanageable. It raises concerns that the most talented trainees might avoid careers involving acute medical care. The report also criticised training opportunities for medical registrars as “highly variable” and too often compromised by heavy workload. Only 38 per cent of registrars felt their training in general medicine was good or excellent compared to 75 per cent in their main specialty.
Patients with certain types of cancer
were more likely to have a greater number of pre-referral consultations. Those diagnosed with multiple myeloma and lung cancer had high proportions of three or more pre-referral consultations (46 per cent and 33 per cent respectively). Breast cancer and melanoma patients were generally referred sooner, with only three per cent and five per cent of each patient group requiring three or more pre-referral consultations. The researchers concluded: “Developing
interventions to reduce the number of pre-referral consultations can help improve the timeliness of cancer diagnosis, and constitutes a priority for early diagnosis initiatives and research.”
“Phase-down” of dental amalgam
Dr Andrew Goddard, director of the
RCP’s Medical Workforce Unit, said: “Medical registrars are the unsung heroes of hospital care. But their skills are not being used to best meet patients’ needs. The NHS will soon struggle to provide the best care for patients if this situation is not urgently reviewed.”
GPs quick to refer suspected cancer
GPs refer more than 80 per cent of sus- pected cancer cases within two consulta- tions, new research has revealed. More than half (58 per cent) of patients
were referred after the first consultation while a quarter were referred after two. In only five per cent of cases it took five or more consultations to initiate a referral. The findings were published in a report
in the British Journal of Cancer which used data from the English National Audit of Cancer Diagnosis in Primary Care 2009-2010. The report looked at the link between the length of time from first symptomatic presentation to specialist referral, and the number of pre-referral consultations. The data covered 13,035 people with any of 18 different cancers.
A COMPLETE phase-out of dental amalgam is not on the cards after a new UN treaty on mercury pollution calls for “phase-down” over an appropriate period of time. The BDA has welcomed the approach as it had been feared that the treaty would require a complete phase-out of the use of amalgam, without time to develop suitable alternative dental filling materials. Dr Stuart Johnston, who led the FDI
World Dental Federation Dental Amalgam Task Team at the negotiations, said: “Dentists in the UK recognise the environmental imperative to minimise mercury emissions, but it was important that this treaty took account not just of the environmental agenda, but also of the need for dentists to care for their patients.”
child mortality rates in the world (7.9 per 1,000 live births). ● FEW DENTAL PATIENTS COMPLAIN Only two per cent of dental patients complained or considered making a formal complaint about a dental
SPRING 2013
professional during the last 12 months according to a survey conducted on behalf of the GDC. The 2012 General Dental Council Annual Patient and Public Survey also found that 95 per cent of patients said they have never
complained and 93 per cent have never considered complaining. ● NEW PRESCRIBING GUIDANCE FROM GMC Doctors face tighter rules on self-prescribing and a ban on prescribing performance-
enhancing drugs to athletes under new guidance issued by the GMC. Good practice in prescribing and managing medicines and devices came into effect on February 25 and can be accessed on
www.gmc-uk.org
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