© 2013 Am Ang Zhang
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Friday, June 28, 2013
Photography: Uluru & Bokeh!
Where is the Rock!
It is often amazing to look away from any major sight. Uluru is no different!
© 2013 Am Ang Zhang
It is often amazing to look away from any major sight. Uluru is no different!
© 2013 Am Ang Zhang
© 2013 Am Ang Zhang
© 2013 Am Ang Zhang
© 2013 Am Ang Zhang
© 2013 Am Ang Zhang
© 2013 Am Ang Zhang
© 2013 Am Ang Zhang
© 2013 Am Ang Zhang
© 2013 Am Ang Zhang
© 2013 Am Ang Zhang
© 2013 Am Ang Zhang
© 2013 Am Ang Zhang
© 2013 Am Ang Zhang
Others
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
London NHS: Best Hospitals?
Looks like some of our best specialist hospitals will be in PRIVATE hands soon. The high quality of British Medical training is now at risk.
"Good education is amongst the rarest things going;
difficult to buy at any price"
The Lancet, 1886
Those with some saving thought they could beat the system and neighbour and buy insurance! Without stringent control of insurers, even when you pay for insurance, not all treatments will be covered and you may still need to supplement what little insurers will pay.
The view is still free.
© 2013 Am Ang Zhang
Looks as though the following might be surplus to requirements by the new NHS, as it was decreed that clients or service users do not really need hospitals.
The Background:
Historically, London Medical Schools were established in the hospitals in the poorer areas in order that medical students could have enough cases to practice on and in return the poor patients had the advantages of free treatment.
For a very long time, doctors trained in London were one of the most valued. A Senior Registrar (yes, in those days) can easily get a Consultant job anywhere else in the Commonwealth and often a Professorship (British styled ones). In other words London trained doctors are a highly exportable commodity.
“The shape of the London hospital system has also been affected by developments in medical science and medical education. In many ways it has been the activities of doctors which have determined the pattern of the hospitals. The increasing ability to treat disease and improved standards of care shortened the time patients spent in hospital, raised the demand for services and led to an escalation of cost. The development of specialisation led first to the development of the special hospitals and later to special departments within the general hospitals. Advances in bacteriology, biochemistry, physiology and radiology created the need for laboratory accommodation and service departments, so that hospitals no longer consisted merely of an operating theatre and a series of wards. Sub-specialisation ultimately meant that services had to be organised on a regional basis and the very reputation of the capital’s doctors affected the number of patients to be seen. The hospitals of central London have long served a population much larger than their local residents.
It is against this complex background of population movement, poor social conditions, disease, wealth and poverty, professional expertise, critical comment and publicity that the London hospitals developed. A complex institutional pattern emerged. Voluntary hospitals grew up beside the ancient royal and endowed hospitals. A local government service providing institutional care for sick paupers developed alongside the hospitals. A network of fever hospitals, scientifically planned from the outset, was established. Physically near to each other, staffed by doctors who had trained in the same hospitals, and often serving the same people, the different objectives and status of the institutions led them to work in virtual isolation from each other. Each hospital had its own traditions and nobody standing in the middle of a ward could have doubted for a moment the type of hospital he was in. Countless details gave each an atmosphere of its own, and the different methods of administration and levels of staffing set them apart.” Geoffrey Rivett
Most of my Medical School Orthopaedic Surgeons were trained here.
The hospital treats almost 10,000 patients a year.
Although most patients would not consider travelling too far for a routine hip replacement, which can probably be done as well in their local district general hospital, the specialist clinics at the Royal National Orthopaedic may provide a reason to make the journey.
Specialist clinics deal with bone tumours, scoliosis (curvature of the spine), rheumatology, spinal injuries, specialist hand and shoulder conditions and sports injuries.
One word of warning – the RNOH's trust did not do well in the Healthcare Commission annual health check.
Strange that. So it may be the next to go.
The Cockroach Catcher was there.
So was the MP, as a patient.
If you have a head injury, stroke or condition affecting the brain, such as Alzheimer's, epilepsy or multiple sclerosis, this is the place to go. Along with the nearby Institute of Neurology National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery has 200 beds at its central London
Healthcare Commission quality of services rating: Good
Perhaps not for sale so soon. Or saving it for the needy MPs?
Neurologists wear bow ties in my days.
The largest specialist heart and lung centre in the UK , the Royal Brompton and Harefield acquired its reputation through the work of Sir Magdi Yacoub, the internationally renowned surgeon who pioneered heart transplants in the UK
The trust attracts staff and patients from across the country and around the globe, and is a centre for research with between 500 and 600 papers published in scientific journals each year. Its 10 research programmes each received the highest rating in 2006.
Each year, surgeons perform 2,400 coronary angioplasties (where a balloon is threaded through an incision in the groin to the heart and expanded to widen a blocked artery), 1,200 coronary bypasses and 2,000 treatments for respiratory failure – so they do not lack for experience.
Other specialist heart units with strong reputations are Papworth Hospital , Huntingdon, where Britain 's first successful heart transplant was carried out in 1979; and the Cardiothoracic Centre, Liverpool , formed in 1991.
Healthcare Commission quality of services rating: Good
It could not be anything else.
The first dedicated cancer hospital in the world, founded in 1851, is still the best. With the Institute of Cancer Research , the Royal Marsden is the largest comprehensive cancer centre in Europe, seeing more than 40,000 patients from the UK
It has the highest income from private patients of any hospital in Britain
Very ready for Medical Tourism!!!
Healthcare Commission quality of services rating: Excellent
The country's largest ear, nose and throat hospital is also Europe's centre for audiological research, with an international reputation for its expertise and range of specialties, all on one site on London Inn Road
Its services range from minor procedures such as inserting grommets (tiny valves placed in the eardrum of a child to drain fluid from the middle ear) to major head and neck surgery. A quarter of its 60,000 patients were referred from other parts of the UK UK
A measure of the Royal National's success is the fact that one third of patients referred from other clinics or hospitals with voice problems has their diagnosis changed on investigation there. Although there are many other centres where throat, nose and ear problems can be treated, none are pre-eminent enough to be included in this guide.
Wow!
Healthcare Commission quality of services rating: Good
Britain's leading national and international referral centre for diseases of the bowel is the only hospital in the UK and one of only 14 worldwide to be recognised as a centre of excellence by the World Organisation of Digestive Endoscopy.
It is a chosen site for the NHS bowel-cancer screening programme being rolled out across the country, which seeks to detect and treat changes in the bowel before cancer develops. Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of cancer in the UK
Bowel cancer can be treated via colonoscopy, to find and remove polyps – growths on the wall of the bowel. The hospital's education programme attracts clinicians from across the UK
The hospital is part of the North West London Hospitals Trust.
The liver unit at King's is the largest in the world. It is one of 31 specialist liver units in the UK UK
The unit performs 200 liver transplants a year, and more than 200 patients with liver failure are admitted to its intensive care unit each year.
King's carried out the first successful transplantation of islet cells – part of the pancreas involved in producing insulin – in a Type 1 diabetic, greatly reducing his need for injected insulin. Last month, the Department of Health announced plans to establish six new islet transplantation centres round the country, based on the research at King's.
Healthcare Commission quality of services rating: Excellent
No bargain price, I am afraid.
The Maudsley Hospital
The Cockroach Catcher was there too.
One of Britain
Today it is a centre of excellence for the delivery mental-health care. Its addictions centre offers new treatments for drug abuse, alcoholism, eating disorders and smoking, it provides innovative care for disturbed children and adolescents and is the largest mental-health training institute in the country.
It has pioneered new approaches to the treatment of heroin addiction and its specialists have raised concerns over the link between cannabis and schizophrenia which have led the Government to review changes to the law.
Healthcare Commission quality of services rating: Good
Ignore the bad press, GMC can no longer investigate its CEO as she has de-registered herself.
If you have a child with a rare or complicated disorder, this is the place to come.
And they do and many are from the Middle East .
So the bad press would not matter, good for the Medical Tourist trade.
It is the largest centre for research into childhood illness outside the US , the largest centre for children's cancer in Europe and delivers the widest range of specialist care of any children's hospital in the UK
Great Ormond Street
I have done that: see Teratoma: An Extract
Paediatrics is one of the most rewarding areas of medicine for doctors because it has seen some of the most spectacular advances over the past 30 years, especially in cancer, where survival has improved dramatically.
Many of those cared for at GOSH still have life-threatening conditions but they are promised the best care both because of the expertise of its medical staff and because of the trust's extraordinary success in attracting charitable donations, which have made it among the best-funded medical institutions in the country.
Healthcare Commission quality of services rating: Excellent.
Baby P or no Baby P.
My eyes still well up when Moorfields is mentioned. Honest.
The largest specialist eye hospital in the country and one of the largest in the world, Moorfields was founded in 1805. It treats more patients than any other eye hospital or clinic in the UK and more than half the ophthalmologists practising in the UK
However, in recent years the hospital has relied too heavily on its reputation and grown complacent. Though standards of academic excellence are still high, it has neglected the services it offers to patients, which were rated weak on quality by the Healthcare Commission in its annual health check last year.
The hospital carried out 23,000 ophthalmic operations last year, providing surgeons with extensive experience on which to hone their skills. The reputation of the trust is such that it has started to run clinics in distant hospitals, capitalising on its brand. The hospital employs 1,300 staff who work on 13 sites.
Perhaps it is not so good to be following on commercial branding. Stick to medicine!!!
Despite its recent problems, Moorfields remains Britain
Healthcare Commission quality of services rating: Weak
For bargain hunters then.
Material drawn from The Independent.
Cassius:
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves."
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves."
Julius Caesar (I, ii, 140-141)
If you think you have read this before: you have indeed. As NHS reform is just re-cycling of earlier political dogma, the Cockroach Catcher can re-cycle his blog posts!!!
FREE FREE FREE
I would like to convince readers that the NHS is worth saving so for a limited time I am offering an electronic version free to any medical blogger, nurses and doctors that worked in the NHS and other health care systems totally free. Please drop me a note to my email address <cockroachcatcher (at) gmail (dot) com >or through COMMENTS.
NHS & Cars.
A: NHS & Monitor: Toyota & McKinsey
Dawn, anyone?
©Am Ang Zhang 2011
The new head of Monitor may indeed be too busy to note that quoting the car industry may not be the wisest thing to do.
Dr Bennett: Yes. I will start with two points. First of all, the fundamental goal of all this, of course, is about providing the best possible care for patients, and indeed specifically in Monitor’s case we will have a duty to promote and protect the interests of users of the system. In a sense, it would be a contradiction of what I think the Bill is aiming to do if we finished up with arrangements that did not enable commissioners to commission the services that were in the best interests of their patients.
More specifically, I know people are concerned that the further introduction of competition, or indeed Any Willing Provider, might make it impossible or very difficult to arrange for different providers to collaborate and provide the sort of integrated care that you are talking about. I don’t see why that should be, not least because of the starting point, but also because we see in lots of other sectors, lots of other markets where collaboration is needed in order to meet the needs of the end user or an intermediate user, that it works perfectly well.
I am very cautious about using examples from other sectors, lest I be immediately quoted as saying "Health care is just like X", which, of course, it is not. Health care is different. But one example which I was discussing with a colleague just the other day is the way the car industry works. You have very effective competition between the manufacturers of different cars but, in practice, when you are making a car you have all sorts of suppliers working together collaborating in order to produce the finished product. Indeed, you will sometimes finish up with providers who are working with more than one manufacturer. You may think it is a big step to go from there to health care but, in practice, if what you are talking about in a similar sort of way is multiple providers working together, collaborating- maybe a couple of different groups working in competition with each other but nevertheless providing the sort of integrated or long term care that is needed-then that should be entirely consistent with a degree of competition.
Toyota, one of the most successful motor car companies ran into major safety problems leading to recalls and litigations:
Toyota has, for the past few years, been expanding its business rapidly. Quite frankly, I fear the pace at which we have grown may have been too quick. I would like to point out here that Toyota's priority has traditionally been the following: First; Safety, Second; Quality, and Third; Volume. These priorities became confused, and we were not able to stop, think, and make improvements as much as we were able to before, and our basic stance to listen to customers' voices to make better products has weakened somewhat. We pursued growth over the speed at which we were able to develop our people and our organization, and we should sincerely be mindful of that. I regret that this has resulted in the safety issues described in the recalls we face today, and I am deeply sorry for any accidents that Toyota drivers have experienced. Especially, I would like to extend my condolences to the members of the Saylor family, for the accident in San Diego. I would like to send my prayers again, and I will do everything in my power to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again.
Akio Toyoda, the president and CEO of Toyota
But the whole thing may indeed be academic: see the following exchanges earlier in the same sitting:
Q114 Chair: To the Commissioning Board and then there is the question of the-
Professor Corrigan: That is what I am unclear about in the Board. The Secretary of State talks about a mandate to the Commissioning Board. Whether that mandate means I then will answer a question about a particular locality within the year, again, force majeure, I don’t think he will have a choice. But that may not be the powers the Bill gives.
Nigel Edwards: He has no powers to intervene in individual consortium areas.
Chair: Are there any other issues here?
Q115 Rosie Cooper: Yes, if I may. Under the Bill, the Secretary of State will no longer have a statutory duty to provide health services and will only have to act with a view to securing the provision of health services in relation to the Board. How accurate is it to see this as spelling the end of a state provided National Health Service?
Nigel Edwards: That is precisely what it is, is it not? That is what it says. It is there in black and white. That is my reading of it as well. In fact, when every NHS hospital is a foundation trust, apart from the fact that the state would be a residual owner of roughly £36 billion of assets which belong to the taxpayer, there is no direct state control over the provision of health care except indirectly through the commissioning process. That is my reading of it.
Q116 Chair: Can I push on that because Rosie’s question was: "Is this the end of state provided health care?" The trusts are still owned by the state and they are delivering care in response to a tax funded budget that is accountable, through the process we have been discussing, to the commissioning boards.
Nigel Edwards: I was taking a narrower view of the definition. But you are absolutely right, yes.
Professor Paton: I am not trying to be smart but that expresses part of the theology of the purchaser-provider split, expressed in 1989 to 1991, which was suspended in culture but not in structure between 1997 and 2001 and then was gradually rolled out again in a new and indeed more radical form. It is just putting the top hat on that. That is what it is saying, but the practical reality will be exactly as the Chairman says. In other words, the reality is that public money is in the providers by one way or another and the theology may not be worth more than that proverbial bucket of spit when it comes to the-
McKinsey:
Tony Blair must indeed be very proud; his people are now on both sides, private health provider side and health regulator side of a Conservative government.
But I do not want to give credit to Blair. According to The Independent it is McKinsey: The Jesuits of Capitalism.
“They are the modern buccaneers of the business world. They jet between cities, rack up huge expenses, and charge up to £6,000 a day to think the unthinkable for clients including big corporations and governments.
They are the star consultants of McKinsey, the élite global management consultancy. Their backgrounds are diverse - former SAS commandos, business people, aid workers - but they are drawn together by the distinct McKinsey culture. Known as "the Firm" or the "McKinsey Mafia", they are radical, zealous - and above all secretive.
But now, it seems, McKinsey is becoming the problem rather than the solution. After almost 80 years as the most prestigious name in the management consultancy world, these "Jesuits of capitalism"are under attack.
McKinsey stands accused of cronyism, greed and arrogance, as a result of associated scandals that stretch from the offices of Enron in Houston, Texas, to the corridors of 10 Downing Street.”
Links:
Tribal: Spinwatch
Related:
B: NHS-Kaiser Permanente: A Class! Seriously!
Mom, they are not wearing clothes!
Hermitage Museum ©2008 Am Ang Zhang
Much money and resources must have been spent to study and emulate the best of Kaiser Permanente. I have followed Kaiser Permanente closely and have first hand discussion with Medical School friends that worked for Kaiser Permanente.
To emulate Kaiser Permanente it is very important to have primary and secondary care working together.
Simple enough?
Yet even when the evidence was so clearly written out for the politicians they still act as it they did not know and wanted to push forward the agenda of using market forces to lower the cost of health care. Or did they know and were just pretending????
It reminded me of the Mercedes A-Class when it first came out:
“Contrary to what many may think, we road testers do get swayed by the opinions of colleagues and I found myself in a quandary. Here was a car from one of the world's most ruthlessly efficient manufacturers, a car that my colleagues liked very much.
It takes a very special kind of bombastic arrogance to be that little boy in The Emperor's New Clothes - to stand up and say: "Actually, its handling is appalling."
But thank God I did, because just a week later, a Swedish magazine found to its cost that while performing what's become known as the ‘Elk Test', the A-class rolled over and put its occupants in hospital. A German mag then repeated the procedure and subsequent examination of the film showed that what we had here was A-class One Disaster.”
From one of their own advisers: Prof Chris Ham
Parliament debate:
Chris Ham"May I add something briefly? The big question is not whether GP commissioners need expert advice or patient input or other sources of information. The big problem that we have had over the past 20 years, in successive attempts to apply market principles in the NHS, has been the fundamental weakness of commissioning, whether done by managers or GPs, and whether it has been fundholding or total purchasing."
“………The barriers include government policies that risk further fragmenting care rather than supporting closer integration. Particularly important in this respect are NHS Foundation Trusts based on acute hospitals only, the system of payment by results that rewards additional hospital activity, and practice based commissioning that, in the wrong hands, could accentuate instead of reduce divisions between primary and secondary care.”
Kaiser Permente Model:
Integration The most distinctive feature of the KP model is the way in which it integrates care:
Integrated inpatient and outpatient care enables patients to move easily between hospitals and the community, or into skilled nursing facilities should this be needed.
Medical specialists are not tied to a particular building – such as a hospital – but provide care in the most appropriate setting. Specialists work alongside generalists in multi-speciality medical groups that help communication between physicians. There is no incentive to build up facilities and resources at the expense of other settings.
Integrated prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care. A high priority is attached to keeping people healthy and avoiding the use of hospital services. Chronic disease management programmes, where care is delivered within the framework mentioned above, help ensure that care is provided as close to home as possible. Doctors have fast access to diagnostic services in the outpatient setting and practice from relatively large medical centres where diagnostic and other equipment is easily accessible.
Nowadays, it seems that the Emperor does not even listen when he is told.
Clarkson said of the A Class Elk problem: it worries me that Mercedes, if they did not know about the problem they should not be in the business of making cars. And if they did know: it is very worrying!
I somehow think that politicians knew. Very worrying indeed!
Perhaps our Emperor did know, he knew about what he was wearing or not wearing.
A Class or S Class (S for second class or scary!)
Links: Jobbing Doctor
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