Missing the point

div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://www.gwiv.com/ShutTheFuckUp.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 393px; height: 246px;” src=”http://www.gwiv.com/ShutTheFuckUp.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-size:85%;”span style=”font-style: italic;”Stick to making the tea love…/spanbr //span/divbr /Is it really worth it? What is the point of hard work? Should one bend over backwards to try and help patients, or the hospital one works for?br /br /Obviously not, thinks a href=”http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5375696.ece”Sarah-Kate Templeton/a. This particular ‘health journalist’ has a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2008/04/doh-wants-dead-patients-so-long-as.html”come to Dr Rant’s attention in the past/a. She also managed to piss off a few thousand doctors on a href=”http://www.doctors.net.uk/”Doctors.net/a by abusing her access by printing ‘quotes’ from doctors, out of context and without their permission. A more vacuous, unethical, gin-soaked two-bit hack would struggle to find.br /br /Dr Rant wonders -span style=”font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;” just what the fuck does this wailing gobshite want?/spanbr /br /The story boils down to this: There is consultant in Morcambe Bay who specialises in breast surgery. This work will be mainly breast cancer. This surgeon is probably very good. He has probably done a lot of research into breast cancer, and is widely regarded in his field. He is probably very good at his work, which is operating on patients with cancer. His basic pay is probably around the same as his dentist.br /br /Now he seems to have done a lot of overtime, both while ‘on-call’ and doing extra waiting list sessions. In fact, he has done £80,000 worth of overtime, which is probably an awful lot of work. On people with breast cancer.br /br /So, Sarah-Kate Templeton seems to want to expose the fact that a top cancer surgeon does a lot of overtime, and gets paid for it.br /br /Just what does this vexatious gorgon want?br /br /Or would she rather make the patients wait, or even not have their cancer operations?br /br /Would she rather the NHS waiting list goes up, and the surgeons cleans up at the private hospital like ’span style=”font-style: italic;”back in the day’/span?br /br /Would she rather a less capable surgeon attempted the work?br /br /By paying a local specialist to extra work as it arises is a fuck site cheaper than taking on a new permanent consultant, for whom there would be no guarantee of work the following year.br /br /But then, if anyone else did over time they would expect to be paid would they?br /br /span style=”font-size:130%;”span style=”font-weight: bold;”I mean seriously, wouldn’t they?/span/spanbr /br /The story then wheels out a href=”http://www.patients-association.com/Staff-Profiles/13″Katherine Murphy/aa, director of the Patients association. She declares:br /br /blockquote style=”font-style: italic;”span style=”font-size:130%;”“It is unethical for the medical profession to line their pockets in this way knowing that NHS trusts are being forced to cut services. Patients are being left in pain. Doctors are being given bonuses for what should be part of their day jobs.”br /br //span/blockquoteComments like this make Dr Rant want to vomit out of his nose. When a rat-faced harpy from an unelected quango spews out uninformed bullshit in a paper such as the Times, something has gone very wrong. The very statement is gibberish. If trusts are cutting services, why are they paying people overtime? If consultants are doing extra work, how exactly are patients being left? If there are waiting lists that require extra sessions, how is that covered by a day job? Funnily enough, Katherine Murphy is a former nurse, who has left nursing for a non-clinical position.br /br /The seething jealousy from chicken-shit journalism and span style=”font-style: italic;”Quango-Evny/spansup style=”font-style: italic;”TM/sup is almost palpable in pieces such as this. A ‘health journalist’ who probably got a B in her O-level biology and a failed nurse should never dictate what the NHS spends its money on. There is always debate about the appropriateness of merit awards. They are one way of rewarding and retaining specialists in their field, and stopping them fucking off abroad.br /br /However, when an expert chooses to do extra work in their time off, to operate upon patients with breast cancer, it is sheer fucking insanity to start belittling them in the public press for doing so.br /br /Anyway, Gordon Brown has seen to it, and it won’t happen again. The new tax changes mean that these surgeons might as well play golf or spend some time with their families, as his latest tax changes will mean that there will be no point in doing extra work as it will be taxed at 70%*. Just hope you don’t get cancer at a busy time, because the surgeon won’t be putting in as much overtime.br //abr /span style=”font-size:85%;”span style=”font-style: italic;”* After new 50% rate, national insurance and loss of basic rate tax relief, there or there abouts – Ed/spanbr //spanbr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/SfoCn289UVI/AAAAAAAAAiQ/_DDA_CVkwP8/s1600-h/Dr+Rant+Banner+Spleen.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 82px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/SfoCn289UVI/AAAAAAAAAiQ/_DDA_CVkwP8/s400/Dr+Rant+Banner+Spleen.jpg” alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330575992735748434″ border=”0″ //adiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/28089527-2431202199231205783?l=www.drrant.net’//div

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Swine Flu: We’re all doomed!

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/SfhqGPxas7I/AAAAAAAAAiA/DLSIaW7-K1s/s1600-h/panic.jpeg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 343px; height: 400px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/SfhqGPxas7I/AAAAAAAAAiA/DLSIaW7-K1s/s400/panic.jpeg” alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330126814538544050″ border=”0″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/Sfhq9BjWTYI/AAAAAAAAAiI/k_PMPoa-lw0/s1600-h/swine_flu.png”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 340px; height: 575px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/Sfhq9BjWTYI/AAAAAAAAAiI/k_PMPoa-lw0/s400/swine_flu.png” alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330127755614244226″ border=”0″ //adiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/28089527-3790787389990051742?l=www.drrant.net’//div

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Referrals Mismanagement

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/SfdRB3lNi0I/AAAAAAAAAh4/0rxhiFKLxFQ/s1600-h/Incompetence.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 320px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/SfdRB3lNi0I/AAAAAAAAAh4/0rxhiFKLxFQ/s400/Incompetence.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”"id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329817776558017346″ //abr /br /Well Fuck Me. The Fucking fuckwits who manage the NHS have managed to fuck it up again!br /br /This time it’s on a href=”http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=23amp;storycode=4122441amp;c=2″referrals/a. Referrals are a basic necessity in any healthcare system such as the NHS as one doctor passes on a patient to another.br /br /Now the idiots who run the NHS think that GPs refer on:-br /ulliTo save themselves a job/liliTo bankrupt their PCT/liliWith no a href=”http://www.hsj.co.uk/news/primary-care/care-quality-commission-to-regulate-primary-care/2007623.article%20″regard for guidelines/a/lilia href=”http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=4120990″Needlessly/a/liliFor things which could be managed closer to home, within primary care/liliFor things which a href=”http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=4121958″don’t need referring at all./a/liliToo a href=”http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=23amp;storycode=4122020″often/a/liliand of course GPs refer a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2008/05/please-dont-admit-anyone-hospitals.html”far too many /apatients./li/ulbr /And these fuckwits with fuck all knowledge of medicine, and rather less of people and patients take it on themselves to adjudicate on “best practice” and set up useless extra layers of bureaucracy such as “Referrala href=”http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/332/7545/844″ management /acentres” to second guess doctors who actually know some medicine and something about their patients and their needs. They fool themselves into thinking that they know what the appropriate rate of referrals is for populations by some misapplied basic maths. The result is of course a false measure, and another league table.br /br /Let’s get real on referrals. GPs refer to specialists for several very good reasons. These are for specialist knowledge, specialist diagnosis, specialised treatment, more detailed review of a patient’s symptoms than can be achieved in a GP’s surgery.br /GPs ask specialists to see their patients as they believe that the specialist’s knowledge will help the patient. span style=”font-weight: bold;”GPs refer to help the patients/span.br /br /Now there are as yet no criteria which reliably distinguish a good from a bad referral. Indeed no one even knows what the criteria to make such a judgement would be. We can make general statements such as “a good referral gets the right patient to right specialist for the right reason” but the devil here comes in defining the “right” not the participants.br /br /GPs have for many years kept a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2003/apr/13/medicineandhealth.comment”referral rates in the UK down/a. Indeed GPs are often criticised for failure to refer and failure to diagnose. In the UK GPs historically have underused rather than overused specialist services. This has some good effects- too much high tech hospital intervention is harmful…unless you are ill enough to make the alternative riskier still!br /br /The increasing medico-legal risk that GPs suffer from will erode this under-referring and may lead to extra “defensive” referrals.br /br /Referrals are going to be a battleground between primary care doctors and cost cutting managers. The doctors have to win this one- we know the medicine, we know the patients and we have a duty to care for patients, not figures or finances.br /br /Sorry NHS managers. For many years you have had the NHS on the cheap. (you weren’t around then to squander money by making the doctor’s job harder) The drivers in the GP consulting room (medico-legal fear, GMC guidance, NICE guidance, drug company datasheets etc) and in patient demographics (older, more treatments possible, more needed, patient demand etc) are all towards ever more referrals, more treatments, and a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2008/07/saving-lives-and-saving-money-what.html”less risk sinking/a done by primary care. This may even be an improvement in medicine. It’s going to be expensive, and it’s not clear the NHS can a href=”http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7658539.stm%20″afford it./abr /br /But in current climate of NHS a href=”http://www.keepournhspublic.com/pdf/HCDI_1007.pdf”delay, diminish, deny and blam/ae no doubt the managers will find some false measure with which to taunt the doctors. span style=”font-weight: bold;”No one will actually be looking at what the patients actually need and matching it with what the system can deliver.br //spandiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/28089527-3357049655460716951?l=www.drrant.net’//div

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Oh my prophetic soul

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://www.makefive.com/images/200833/67e12ca204bc4c2a.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 223px; height: 244px;” src=”http://www.makefive.com/images/200833/67e12ca204bc4c2a.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″ //abr /Recently Dr Rant blogged on a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2009/04/medicine-by-dictat.html”medicine by dictat/a. We included this line, meaning it as a joke. span style=”font-style: italic;”“All diabetics are so well controlled that they never get out of hypoglycaemic coma”/spanbr /br /Reality it seems is ahead of art this weekend. This a href=”http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/338/mar05_2/b800″piece in the BMJ/a raises a serious question over the value of extremely tight glycaemic (blood sugar) control in older type 2 diabetics, and all the extra costs of insulin and blood testing and monitoring and hypoglycaemic episodes that go with it, not to mention the unpleasantness of injections.br /br /The QOF targets have been tightened this year, instructing GPs to achieve very tight glycaemic control in their diabetics…just as the evidence suggests it may not be the a href=”http://www.civitas.org.uk/wordpress/2009/04/an-addendum-quality-often-flawed”right thing to do./abr /br /How ironic. A a href=”http://www.thesystemsthinkingreview.co.uk/”target based system/a leads a href=”http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123914878625199185.html”professionals to do the wrong thing/a for money. How very a href=”http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/columnists/3540271/shared-opinion.thtml”new Labour/a, as Hugo Rifkind shows as he separates sheep from goats this week.br /br /Hippocrates said, “First, Do no harm.” The longer he goes on in medicine the more the misleading simplicity of this great instruction strikes Dr Rant. How much harm will the NHS force doctors to do to meet targets rather than treat the patients right? Answers please on a a href=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5006037/Patients-died-due-to-appalling-care-at-Staffordshire-hospitals—Healthcare-Commission.html”postcard from Staffordshire/a.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/28089527-5807495762717949358?l=www.drrant.net’//div

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Whistleblowing: Why its dangerous

div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/Se3pHcS9riI/AAAAAAAAAhw/_ivwjU–7fg/s1600-h/wistle.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 293px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/Se3pHcS9riI/AAAAAAAAAhw/_ivwjU–7fg/s400/wistle.jpg” alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327170248313253410″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-size:85%;”span style=”font-style: italic;”Don’t even blow there!/spanbr //span/divbr /Alan Johnson is a href=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/5051522/Mouse-droppings-found-in-hospital-operating-theatre.html”quoted/a as saying, span style=”font-style: italic;”“”I don’t understand why clinicians whose primary role is the safety of their patients are somehow concerned about whistle-blowing. I can’t understand it, quite frankly.”br //spanbr /Well let’s answer him.br /br /In the NHS the senior management of trusts now have the right to a href=”http://www.warwickcourier.co.uk/news/Specialist-doctor-sacked-by-hospital.4435536.jp”sack/a a href=”http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/3701548.stm”doctors/a, and a href=”http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1055592/Heart-doctor-sacked-branded-fraudster-saving-elderly-patients-life-private-equipment.html”use this/a a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2006/08/dr-otto-chan.html%20″right/a freely. It happens a href=”http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/hospital-bosses-blasted-over-doctors-sacking/418709.aspx”abroad /atoo.br /br /Senior management regards the bearers of bad news as unwelcome, disloyal, and untrustworthy. They are not “one of us” They are one of them, and dangerous. Trust managers fear the DH or exposure in the local a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2006/jul/30/health.medicineandhealth”newspaper/a. Nothing else. The kindest term they will use for a whistle blower is “nuisance.”br /br /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Money/Pix/pictures/2008/11/14/WhistleBlower460.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 460px; height: 276px;” src=”http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Money/Pix/pictures/2008/11/14/WhistleBlower460.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-size:85%;”span style=”font-style: italic;”Give a little whistle!/span/span/divbr /br /The default style of NHS senior management is span style=”font-weight: bold;”bullying/span (shut up), span style=”font-weight: bold;”bluster/span (talking is communicating) and span style=”font-weight: bold;”bravado/span (hope I don’t get found out before I get parachuted out of here).br /br /NHS senior management wants everything to look Ok, to get its foundation status, and not to get found out as incompetent. As all NHS management is incompetent maintaining the illusion of competence is difficult, but a top priority. Whistle blowers threaten this and must be eliminated.br /br /That’s why Dr Steve Bolsin ended up working in Australia.br /br /That’s why a href=”http://www.ward87.blogspot.com/”Dr Pal/a now cries in the wilderness.br /br /Whistle blowers are not welcome in the NHS, the no-blame culture means keep quiet and we won’t blame you…unless it’s convenient for us, and that patients continue to be harmed.br /br /The no blame culture, and the organisation with a memory, that makes amends, and learns from mistakes is a total fiction.br /br /In the NHS there are vicious blame games afoot, and shooting the messenger is one strategy the management use to get a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2006/jul/30/health.medicineandhealth”unwelcome information/a off their patch.br /br /And professional bodies such as GMC and GTC will not stand up for whistle blowers, nor a href=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/5048998/Science-teacher-found-guilty-of-misconduct-for-Channel-4-undercover-filming.html”allow a public interest defence./abr /br /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://www.seniorbrigade.com/health_care/images/abc_gma_elder_edit_071016_ms_000.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 413px; height: 310px;” src=”http://www.seniorbrigade.com/health_care/images/abc_gma_elder_edit_071016_ms_000.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-style: italic;font-size:85%;” Smile: You’re on Candid Camera!br //span/divbr /It’s not just doctors is it? Anyone, who’s not spent the last week in contemplation of their own haemorrhoids, will have heard about thespan style=”font-style: italic;” /spana href=”http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/8002559.stm”span style=”font-style: italic;”‘Panorama’/span nurse who got struck off/a. The irony is that her striking off has garnered more attention from the press than the disgusting abuse that she uncovered in the places where she worked.br /br /So, hidden camera work might not be listed in the ’span style=”font-style: italic;”professional duties/span’ of a nurse, and she might have jumped a few rungs of the ladder (perhaps the fact that she felt such a lack of confidence in the ‘proper pathways’ should be the most telling aspect of this sorry affair) , but sometimes the ends do justify the means. After all, isn’t that how modern politicians reconcile their nauseating, self-interested, subservience and lack of independent thoughts or actions?br /br /Alan Johnson wonders why whistle blowers are scared. Come on Alan. You are an ex-union man and you know the games employers play. The NHS shows all of them how to play at the highest level, and can rightfully revel in its status as one of the worlds most opaque, arbitrary and vindictive employers.br /br /Are you showing false naivete here? Or are you simply turning into another dissembling boss?div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/28089527-2381570571670075665?l=www.drrant.net’//div

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The NHS Plan: Ten Years on

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/SeemsYJZj1I/AAAAAAAAAho/lQZY11oHZtY/s1600-h/Labourisntworking2.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 191px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/SeemsYJZj1I/AAAAAAAAAho/lQZY11oHZtY/s400/Labourisntworking2.jpg” alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325408365715230546″ border=”0″ //abr /br /This year the Commons All Party Parliamentary Group on Primary Care and Public Health is running an enquiry with the title? “Was the NHS Plan really a blueprint for the NHS – 10 years on?” You can contribute via a href=”http://www.pagb.co.uk/appg/PDFs/termsofreferencepressnotice.pdf”this link/a.br /br /There’s nothing quite as sad at looking back at the wreckage of a href=”http://www.rc.umd.edu/rchs/reader/ozymandias.html”grandiose/a plans. They sounded good at the time. They had full sa href=”http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2800%2902544-7/fulltext”takeholder support/a, and “user buy in.” The a href=”http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2800%2902563-0″Lancet/a and a href=”http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/321/7257/315%20″BMJ/a had been co-opted to the cheer party. A bright new government was in office, and the dinosaur Frank Dobson had been retired to the Natural History Museum for a spot of taxidermy.br /br /br /So in 2000 the a href=”http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4010198″NHS plan/a was launched.br /br /And each of its aspirations sounds so reasonable and obvious that you’d have to be against motherhood and apple pie to reject them. We now recognise this as New Labour mood music, which is designed to unethically hypnotise its hearers, and destroy all critical faculties in rather a href=”http://iraqdossier.com/sexing/how”less than 45 minutes/a. It’s worked rather too well for too long, but soon they’ll pay for their mendacity and incompetence at the polls. I suspect we could forgive their incompetence (marks for effort etc) but we won’t forgive them for taking us for mugs… a href=”http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1167576/Dont-forget-toothbrush-Jacqui-After-porn-films-furnished-home-taxpayer.html%20″barbecues …plugs/a… a href=”http://www.order-order.com/2009/04/new-mps-scam-breaking”second homes/a etc.br /br /Dr Rant thought it would be fun to see how well the ten core principles have stood up to the last ten years. The original a href=”http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4002960″DH text/a is in ordinary type and span style=”font-style: italic;”our comments are in italics/span.br /br /“We the undersigned” span style=”font-style: italic;”Some of the medical great and good were far too easily taken in by the New Labour spin machine, and deserve castigation for their gullibility. /spanbr /support these principles, and commit ourselves to a span style=”font-weight: bold;”modernised/span span style=”font-style: italic;”(one of the great weasel words of our times. Dr Rant calls for a a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2007/03/call-for-national-debate.html”national debate/a on a new modernised word going forward into future documents. Why does everything have to be modernised? Why is the old so in need of reform? What if it wasn’t broken before? What if the fix is really a fix for administrators, not patients? What if change is worse than what already was? New Labour’s falsest assumption has been that “new” and “modernised” is automatically good, and that change towards this must therefore be good in itself.)/span NHS on the basis of these principles reflected in this NHS Plan.br /br /1. The NHS will provide a universal service for all based on clinical need,br /not ability to pay.br /Healthcare is a basic human right. Unlike private systems the NHS will not excludebr /people because of their health status or ability to pay. Access to the NHS will continue to depend upon clinical need, not ability to pay.br /br /span style=”font-style: italic;”Great but:-br /Dr Rant, and many other taxpayers, now have to pay for their a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2007/10/theres-hole-in-my-tooth.html”dentists privately/a.br /Demented patients have to sell their house to get residential or nursing care.br /Infertility treatment is not covered by the NHSbr /Erectile dysfunction- the NHS failed to rise to this opportunity.br /Cancer treatment- some a href=”http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-503146/Karol-Sikora-Commentary-Why-shouldnt-cancer-sufferer-pay-prolong-life.html”not available/a- personal and postcode lotteries.br /Many clinical needs go unmet.br /Mortality rates are a href=”http://tpa.typepad.com/bettergovernment/2008/01/major-study-on.html”worse/abr /a href=”http://tpa.typepad.com/home/files/wasting_lives.pdf”Mortality amenable to healthcare/a is higher under our systembr /br /Yes the NHS is a very comprehensive service…that over time has comprehensively and covertly reclassified problems so that they are not medical any more but social…and so come out of a different budget.br /br /Private systems- that a href=”http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel_hannan/blog/2009/04/06/americans_dont_copy_the_british_healthcare_system”great old bogeyman/a, that entirely justifies the NHS as “the envy of the world.” Of course. And let’s not look across to a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2008/01/europe-not-america.html”Europe to see how anyone else might have got it better organised/a. They’re all a href=”http://www.progressive-vision.org/policies/health.html”out of step /aand unethical except our NHS./spanbr /br /2. The NHS will provide a comprehensive range of servicesbr /The NHS will provide access to a comprehensive range of services throughout primary and community healthcare, intermediate care and hospital based care. The NHS will also provide information services and support to individuals in relation to health promotion, disease prevention, self-care, rehabilitation and after care. The NHS will continue to provide clinically appropriate cost-effective services.br /br /span style=”font-style: italic;”The NHS probably manages to provide this…mostly because of the internal motivation of doctors and nurses, and despite the a href=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5006037/Patients-died-due-to-appalling-care-at-Staffordshire-hospitals—Healthcare-Commission.html”poor/a quality of management./spanbr /br /3. The NHS will shape its services around the needs and preferences ofbr /individual patients, their families and their carersbr /The NHS of the 21st century must be responsive to the needs of different groups andbr /individuals within society, and challenge discrimination on the grounds of age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability and sexuality. The NHS will treat patients as individuals, with respect for their dignity. Patients and citizens will have a greater say in the NHS, and the provision of services will be centred on patients’ needs.br /br /span style=”font-style: italic;”This was sound good fluff then, and is now exposed as utter bollocks. Patients have never had less say on their local services than now. The government abolished a href=”http://www.newstatesman.com/200102190016.html%20″Community Health Councils/a, and replaced them with a mishmash of talking shops. (A typical new Labour modernisation- take something that at least works partially and totally bugger it up)br /br /Local services are decided from the centre, cooked up in PCT plans agreed with DH and SHA beforehand. No public voice present in any of them. Fake consultation and grand listening tours ensue. But let’s be clear. These consultations ask a question “Just how good do you think these plans are?” and the answers range from, “Whatever, you’ll do it anyway” to “Agree” to “that’s the greatest new paradigm in health service management since the last one. Go straight to beaconicity status” Read Michael Mandelstam’s excellent book if in any doubt about this.br /br /Dr Rant’s patients go to the local foundation trust centre of excellence and come back saying, “They altered my appointment four times, they ran late, they weren’t interested in me, I couldn’t understand the doctor, I was too scared to ask the doctor, you’re just a number to them”…etc. Dr Rant’s patient centred response is “Tell me more, it gives me grist for my blog!” /spanbr /br /4. The NHS will respond to different needs of different populationsbr /Health services will continue to be funded nationally, and available to all citizens of the UK. Within this framework, the NHS must also be responsive to the different needs of different populations in the devolved nations and throughout the regions and localities. Efforts will continually be made to reduce unjustified variations and raise standards to achieve a truly National Health Service.br /br /span style=”font-style: italic;”That’s why the Scots and Welsh get free prescriptions and free car parking at hospitals, whilst the English taxpayers subsidise the Celtic fringe.br /br /What about responding properly to the one population who are properly the concern of an illness treatment service- the sick? What about treating people on grounds of illness, not on basis of ethnic origin?br /br /What about providing a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2008/05/please-dont-admit-anyone-hospitals.html”enough beds/a in a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2008/01/deep-clean-more-like-whitewash.html”clean/a hospitals?br //spanbr /br /5. The NHS will work continuously to improve quality services and tobr /minimise errorsbr /br /The NHS will ensure that services are driven by a cycle of continuous qualitybr /improvement. Quality will not just be restricted to the clinical aspects of care, butbr /include quality of life and the entire patient experience. Healthcare organisations and professions will establish ways to identify procedures that should be modified orbr /abandoned and new practices that will lead to improved patient care. All thosebr /providing care will work to make it ever safer, and support a culture where we can learn from and effectively reduce mistakes. The NHS will continuously improve its efficiency, productivity and performance.br /br /span style=”font-style: italic;”This is the biggest failing of the lot. Donaldson is supposed to be an expert on this kind of thing. He set up, “the organisation with a memory.” One of Dr Rant’s biggest frustrations is that the NHS has still no system for learning from its errors. It just doesn’t take safety as seriously as the airline industry. There is a cynical theory that it is easier and cheaper to pay out a few indefensible cases, run many into the long grass, or six feet under, than it is to spend the same money on getting the system right in the first place. Maybe a few damaged or dead patients, and a few ruined medical and nursing careers are an affordable price to the administrative mind? Or at least that seems to be the risk management calculation the NHS is often making.br /br /a href=”http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7872501.stm”Negligence/a is paid out…with no one giving details of cases, or any discussion of what is learnt from the episode. Individual patients and doctors suffer, and the compensation agreement always has a “confidentiality-no publicity” clause built in. At one level this keeps everything quiet, and avoids adding public embarrassment to professional chagrin, and at another it just seems that medicine deals with individual tragedies and no overall lesson is learnt.br /br /Lots has been spent on audit, and clinical governance, and quangos such as the “care quality commission” and “NICE” and “NPSA” but the relationship of these organisations to coalface workers is distant at best and antagonistic often.. NICE is arrogant and NASTY and thinks it knows how to do other people’s jobs. It has so many hidden assumptions and false values and false valuations behind its pronouncements, that it deceives itself that it has any value. NPSA has never yet made any difference to patient safety, and no one ever reports anything to it…and even if we did no one is certain anything would follow from so doing. Another expensive quango that takes in time money and data….and successfully produces another glossy report. The Healthcare Commission finally a href=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5006037/Patients-died-due-to-appalling-care-at-Staffordshire-hospitals—Healthcare-Commission.html”barked/a on a href=”http://www.hsj.co.uk/news/acute-care/who-let-standards-fall-so-low-at-mid-staffordshire?/2007561.article%20″Staffordshire/a…and so is about to be abandonded and merged into the “Care a href=”http://www.cqc.org.uk/”Quality/a Commission” run by…the a href=”http://www.hsj.co.uk/news/acute-care/care-quality-commission-defends-cynthia-bower/5000279.article”former SHA chief/a exec for NHS West Midlands…who denies she could a href=”http://www.hsj.co.uk/news/acute-care/mid-staffs-was-off-sha-radar/2007598.article”possibly have realised /athere were problems at Stafford…as has the a href=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/heal-our-hospitals/5106249/Coroners-records-will-be-examined-in-Stafford-Hospital-scandal.html”coroner/a…and a href=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/heal-our-hospitals/5105991/Hospitals-granted-foundation-status-despite-a-plethora-of-failings.html”Monitor/a.br /br /GPs have their “a href=”http://www.civitas.org.uk/press/prcs83.php”Quality and Outcomes/a framework” which distorts their work, and purports to measure quality.br /br /Well as Dilbert puts it in a cartoon, “Nah, don’t bother with real quality. Just invent a meaningless metric and call it an industry gold standard.” Well our three star, green light, red rosette and gold swimming award foundation trust and their high quality Blue Riband Quality Medallion management manage to achieve this objective completely. The NHS must be a world leader in meaningless metrics. “World class” commissioning surpasses them all. Perhaps I should set up a Meaningful Metrics Consultancy and measure just how much money I could make in exchange for baloney.br //spanbr /br /6. The NHS will support and value its staffbr /The strength of the NHS lies in its staff, whose skills, expertise and dedication underpin all that it does. They have the right to be treated with respect and dignity. The NHS will continue to support, recognise, reward and invest in individuals and organisations, providing opportunities for individual staff to progress in their careers and encouraging education, training and personal development. Professionals and organisations will have opportunities and responsibilities to exercise their judgement within the context of nationally agreed policies and standards.br /br /span style=”font-style: italic;”I wish I felt valued by the NHS but I don’t. Staff now are disposable elements, who are motivated by vested producer interests, who need to be regulated, and if any of them speak out they should be struck off. The NHS is wonderful so anyone who points out any flaws in it is clearly deluded, wrong, and in need of re-education.br /br /Quite clearly all faults in the organisation are due to character flaws in employees. As one manager summed it up, his biggest fear for the NHS was that a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2007/06/deeply-unhappy-family-don-try-to.html”someone would try to improve it/a. I don’t think anyone as staff gets a particularly good deal out of NHS. (though in these recession times the available alternatives look rather worse)br /br /a href=”http://www.hsj.co.uk/news/workforce/bullying-permeating-patient-care-warns-healthcare-commission/2007581.article”Bullying is rife/a, with passive aggression the preferred option.br /br /But managers are so wonderful they need no regulatory body, and a quick golden a href=”http://www.hsj.co.uk/1631m-pay-off-for-former-sha-chief/57517.article”parachute/a out of trouble, and a sideways move sorts out any problems. From such attention to detail we get the a href=”http://www.hsj.co.uk/news/acute-care/care-quality-commission-defends-cynthia-bower/5000279.article”new chief exec/a of the Care Quality Commission from the SHA which a href=”http://www.hsj.co.uk/news/acute-care/mid-staffs-was-off-sha-radar/2007598.article%20″turned/a a blind eye to a href=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5030012/Staffordshire-hospital-scandal-the-hidden-story.html”failings in Staffordshire/a.br /br /Expect floggings to continue till staff morale improves.br //spanbr /br /br /7. Public funds for healthcare will be devoted solely to NHS patients.br /The NHS is funded out of public expenditure, primarily by taxation. This is a fair andbr /efficient means for raising funds for healthcare services. Individuals will remain free to spend their own money as they see fit, but public funds will be devoted solely to NHS patients, and not be used to subsidise individuals’ privately funded healthcare.br /br /span style=”font-style: italic;”I wish we could describe the spending of taxpayers money on needless computer initiatives, bollocks management consultancy, ISTCs that don’t deliver, Darzi policlinics, dumbing up staff (nurse practitioners, GPwSI etc) redisorganisations, renaming failing organisations from Rantingshire PCT to NHS Rantingshire, chiropody to podiatry, fitness for purpose exercises, payment by results, world class commissioning, pathway redesign teams, PFI hospitals, LIFT(ing the budget deficit higher)primary care premises and other such wastes as “successful patient centred reform.” Sadly honesty forbids us from doing this…but new Labour apparatchiks will feel no such concerns.br /br /The NHS funding increase in the last ten years has largely been pissed away on government vanity projects, managerial conceits, and structural meddling in the NHS. The focus has been on internal objectives, not on delivering what patients need and want. /spanbr /br /br /8. The NHS will work together with others to ensure a seamless servicebr /for patients.br /br /The health and social care system must be shaped around the needs of the patient, notbr /the other way round. The NHS will develop partnerships and co-operation at all levels of care – between patients, their carers and families and NHS staff; between the healthbr /and social care sector; between different Government departments; between the publicbr /sector, voluntary organisations and private providers in the provision of NHS servicesbr /to ensure a patient-centred service.br /br /span style=”font-style: italic;”Don’t make me laugh. A carrier pigeon with a concrete block round its neck could get letters from hospitals to GPs quicker than the hospital mail and van systems. Letters from our local centre of excellence take over 4 weeks to arrive. Letters from a famous National Centre of Excellence take over 3 months to arrive. Interfaces of care are dangerous places for patients, and failures of communication here are legion. The issue isn’t on hospital star ratings yet, so no one is that bothered about it. The medical defence organisations are acutely aware of this as they defend (or more likely settle) the claims that arise from poor communication.br /br /Communications with social workers are rare and patchy.br /br /The battle over bed blocking geriatric patients and limited council funds for residential and nursing care are still huge. Care about the patient’s need for care? Who are we kidding? The game here is snag shifting of the old crumble and the budget cost from one agency to another.br /br /Patients do not experience a seamless service. Doctors are forced to work in their silos, and no one seems to have a grasp of the whole. I think that’s the kind of problem John Seddon’s systems thinking might address, but which therefore won’t be tried in the NHS./spanbr /br /br /9. The NHS will help keep people healthy and work to reduce healthbr /inequalitiesbr /The NHS will focus efforts on preventing, as well as treating ill-health. Recognising that good health also depends upon social, environmental and economic factors such as deprivation, housing, education and nutrition, the NHS will work with other publicbr /services to intervene not just after but before ill health occurs. It will work with othersbr /to reduce health inequalities.br /br /span style=”font-style: italic;”Health is a href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/Impact-Inequality-Make-Societies-Healthier/dp/0415372690″proportional to wealth/a, and to a href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spirit-Level-Societies-Almost-Always/dp/1846140390/%20″wealth distribution /aacross a society. This government has overseen and encouraged the biggest growth in wealth, education and class differentials in living memory.br /br /The NHS is like a pea shooter against a bazooka in fighting the ill effects of these increasing differentials. And fuck New Labour’s “Tory Toffs” game. The newly entitled twaterati are not old landed gentry but public sector managers, and their co-dependent a href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rip-off-Scandalous-Management-Consulting-Machine/dp/1872188060″management consultants/a who between them siphon the a href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plundering-Public-Sector-David-Craig/dp/1845293746″ public purse/a into their own pockets all the while talking the mantra of, “we (pretend) to care about health inequalities” and “opportunity for all.” (especially our own)br /br /Meanwhile New Labour has continued selling off public space such as school playing fields and old hospitals to builders, thereby reducing the opportunity for exercise in schools.br /br /Health and wealth inequalities a href=”http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/the-week/810976/glasgow-east-is-browns-dirty-little-secret-a-hideous-costly-social-experiment-gone-wrong.thtml”have grown /aas a result of New Labour’s economic policies./spanbr /br /10. The NHS will respect the confidentiality of individual patients and provide open access to information about services, treatment and performance. Patient confidentiality will be respected throughout the process of care. The NHS will be open with information about health and healthcare services. It will continue to use information to improve the quality of services for all and to generate new knowledge about future medical benefits. Developments in science such as the new genetics offer important possibilities for disease prevention and treatment in the future. As a national service, the NHS is well-placed to take advantage of the opportunities offered by scientific developments, and will ensure that new technologies are harnessed andbr /developed in the interests of society as a whole and available to all on the basis of need.br /br /span style=”font-style: italic;”Well, that’s all right then. It tells no one what it is up to and then Abracadra, wow, ker-bang, ker-plunk, all our medical notes are uploaded without personal consent onto the National Spine. So much for respecting confidential medical information, and the right of invididual patients to decide how their information will be used.br /br /This Labour government of control freak, micro-manager snoops wants to know everything about everyone. Well there’s enough evidence out there- we hate you- please fuck off. Get out of our light, and stop wasting our oxygen supplies you wasteful, hateful bastards.br /br /The only protection from New Labour’s database state is that it cannot get the a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2006/10/comrade-can-you-spare-20-billion.html”computers/a to a href=”http://www.e-health-insider.com/news/item.cfm?ID=2104″work/a. This government is less respectful of individual people and their right to privacy and confidentiality than any in recorded history. It is trying to make the NHS like this too, but is running into a href=”http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/read-all-about-it/2009/03/doctors-letter-to-justice-secr.html”stiff opposition/a.br /br /So as we can see the NHS is failing to deliver on pretty well all of the ten principles of the NHS plan.br /br /span style=”font-weight: bold;”There is nothing patient centred about it. There is nothing in it, or any of New Labour’s reforms that a href=”http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2807%2960763-6/fulltext”really helps/a me to get patients seen and treated better./spanbr /br /Doctors and nurses saying this is a damning, and rather sad, indictment for anyone in the NHS to make in describing the effects of a huge cash injection into the NHS. This is New Labour at its best. It can produce a glossy brochure, and a nice newsletter, but it has no idea what is actually needed, or is happening, and even less wish to find out.br /br /span style=”font-weight: bold;”span style=”font-weight: bold;”The NHS plan is a failure on its own terms./span/spanbr /br /The Tories under Andrew Lansley seem to have no apparent specific plans about the NHS. Looking back at the failures of the Labour monsters this lack of a plan may be Mr Lansley’s most sensible decision of all!br /br /Happy 10th Birthday NHS plan./spanbr /br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/Seelk1YofUI/AAAAAAAAAhg/fJ-uynI1bjo/s1600-h/Dr+Rant+Banner+Shit.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 82px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/Seelk1YofUI/AAAAAAAAAhg/fJ-uynI1bjo/s400/Dr+Rant+Banner+Shit.jpg” alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325407136613170498″ border=”0″ //adiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/28089527-6447868729165036254?l=www.drrant.net’//div

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Great Minds Think Alike.

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/SeM76HOI-1I/AAAAAAAAAhY/cmyV56pFFKg/s1600-h/Einstein.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/SeM76HOI-1I/AAAAAAAAAhY/cmyV56pFFKg/s400/Einstein.jpg” alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324165054038866770″ border=”0″ //abr /br /It’s always good to see when the Mainstream Media catches up with bloggers. This week three welcome pieces have appeared, two in BMJ, and one in the Times.br /br /a href=”http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/338/apr07_1/b1457″Tony Delamonthe this week in BMJ/a has a good piece on “What to cut?” It’s suggestions for what spending the NHS should cut when the cash runs out. If the credit crunch forces some sanity on public squandering (investment?) then some good may come out of it.br /br /It’s great to see ideas similar to ours being taken on board. It shows that those who know anything about medicine are beginning to form a firm view that the last 12 years of New Labour meddling with the Health Service have achieved nothing, and that most of their changes could be stopped with no loss of function.br /br /We’ve been saying that loudly and raucously for some time now as you can see in the links a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2007/04/nhs-what-is-to-be-done.html”here/a and a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2007/03/management-spaceship.html” here/a and a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2007/01/unacceptable-face-of-cronyism-in.html” here/a. It’s great when a prophet no longer has to cry out in the wilderness.br /br /In the Times this week a href=”http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/camilla_cavendish/article6054832.ece”Camilla Cavendish/a has drawn a a href=”http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/3525366/the-productive-and-the-unproductive.thtml”useful distinction/a between the two types of public service worker. These are firstly the direct, frontline public sector staff who have simple job titles, and you know what they do. Doctor, soldier, teacher, receptionist, nurse, street cleaner, fireman, policeman. The second category are the mostly useless managerial cadre, a href=”http://www.blogger.com/the” net=”" 2007=”" 06=”" html=”"twaterati and the clipboarderati/a, who give themselves long job titles, rearrange the department, liaise with all stakeholders, and call more a href=”http://www.slowleadership.org/blog/2008/06/the-more-meetings-the-less-trust”meetings/aa whilst wondering why /aa href=”http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article2049245.ece”no-one/a wants to a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2007/07/engagement-or-divorce.html”engage with them/a. This second category is mostly a hindrance to anything other than buffing the figures to make it look as if all the targets have been met, which can then be spun as “improved performance” to the public by mendacious Labour politicians. Cutting this second category would be a blessing to service users, service providers, and the taxpayer. Things would improve, and cost less if we decommissioned this second category.br /br /Which brings us onto the death knell for a href=”http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/338/mar12_1/b832″Practice Based Commissioning (PBC)/aa. Dr Rant has never thought much of PBC. We’ve always thought that its /aa href=”http://www.drrant.net/2007/07/promised-land.html” messiahs/aa were somewhat strange, and that it offered /aa href=”http://www.drrant.net/2007/11/practice-based-commisioning.html”nothing of real significance/a to already too busy GPs. Seems now that even people who are nominal enthusiasts for the policy are damning it.br /br /Officially it’s a policy being a href=”http://www.newstatesman.com/roundtables/group_discussion_view.php?group_id=7amp;grouptopic_id=10″“reinvigorated”/a this year. Gillam and Lewis basically raise the question of whether it should be a resuscitation or palliative job, “But if tangible results remain elusive, evidence based policy makers will wonder whether this patient needs palliative care not reinvigoration.”br /br /A bit like the British Economy really. Apparently a href=”http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2009/04/imf-let-softening-up-process-commence.html”an unnamed minister/a has suggested that a visit from the IMF should be thought of as a “recuperative exercise”, and not as a sign of economic near death.br /br /Credo est, quia absurdum. Bit like the whole government and all its policies at present.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/28089527-4493584923534907075?l=www.drrant.net’//div

Posted in Other Ranters, Rants

Remedy UK: Thunderbirds are go!!

div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://www.reelfilm.com/images/tbird6.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 210px;” src=”http://www.reelfilm.com/images/tbird6.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;”"F.O.A.D Liam!”/spanbr //divbr /In february, we posted a a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2009/02/message-from-remedy-uk.html”a message from Remedy UK/a detailing their appeal to raise funds for a judicial review of the GMCs decision not to investigate the 1600 signature referral of the architects of ‘MMC’.br /br /We are pleased to tell you that the appeal has raised enough money to proceed!br /br /Click span style=”font-size:130%;”a style=”font-weight: bold;” href=”http://www.remedyuk.org/index.php/RemedyUK-News/GMC-Case-the-papers-have-been-served.html”Here/a/span for more on the ‘Double Standards Challenge’.br /br /br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/Sd4KvenyppI/AAAAAAAAAhQ/8BpO8HecGpk/s1600-h/Dr+Rant+Banner+Finger+small.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 82px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/Sd4KvenyppI/AAAAAAAAAhQ/8BpO8HecGpk/s400/Dr+Rant+Banner+Finger+small.jpg” alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322703620388595346″ border=”0″ //adiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/28089527-233338420562924180?l=www.drrant.net’//div

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Emotional intelligence works!

A new study reported in the a href=”http://www.bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/”BPS Research Digest/a shows that training in emotional intelligence (span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_0″EI/span) – the ability to understand and manage one’s own and other people’s emotions – actually works. Researchers claim their findings have profound implications given the number of positive outcomes, including improved health and occupational success, that are known to be associated with having greater emotional intelligence.br /br /Nineteen students undertook the training, whilst 18 others formed a control group and carried on life as normal. The training was theoretically grounded and aimed to improve the understanding of emotions, identifying emotions, expressing and using emotions and managing emotions.br /br /After training and at 6-month follow-up, the training students but not the control students showed improvements in aspects of “trait” emotional intelligence normally considered immutable, including improvement in emotion identification and emotion management (of self and others’ emotions). Surprisingly perhaps, “emotional understanding” showed no improvement.br /br /”Overall these results are promising,” the researchers said, “as they suggest that, with a proper methodology relying on the latest scientific knowledge … some facets of span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_1″EI/span can be enhanced but not all.”br /br /The researchers said their findings could have potential application in health, educational and organisational settings but they acknowledged their study had a number of major limitations. These include the fact that the control group undertook no special activity, so any effects observed for the span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_2″EI/span training could be caused by non-specific factors, such as the simple benefit that can come from taking part in group activities.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/304239242092615684-2068452077838271597?l=mcarthursrant.blogspot.com’//div

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HR 2.0 and Business Delusion – live blog

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![endif]–span class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span lang=”EN-GB”Jon/span/spanspan lang=”EN-GB” style=”font-family:arial;” span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_1″Ingham/span/span span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_2″kindly/span/span span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_3″produced/span/span a span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_4″live/span/span blog of span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_5″my/span/span span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_6″presentation/span/span span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_7″on/span/span span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_8″HR/span/span 2.0 span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_9″and/span/span span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_10″the/span/span span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_11″business/span/span span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_12″delusion/span/span. span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_13″This/span/span span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_14″is/span/span a span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_15″first/span/span for span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_16″me/span/span span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_17″and/span/span I span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_18″think/span/span span class=”blsp-spelling-error”it/span/span span class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_20″worked/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_21″pretty/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_22″well/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;”. /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_23″Romanian/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_24″HR/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_25″people/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_26″seem/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_27″to/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_28″be/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_29″struggling/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_30″with/span/span span class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_31″the/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_32″same/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_33″challenges/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” as /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_34″the/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanst1:country-region st=”on” style=”font-family:arial;”span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_35″UK/span/span/st1:country-regionspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_37″and/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_38″the/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanst1:country-region st=”on” style=”font-family:arial;”st1:place st=”on”span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_39″US/span/span/st1:place/st1:country-regionspan style=”font-family:arial;”. /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_40″Interesting/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_41″debate/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_42″about/span/span span class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_43″the/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_44″balance/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_45″between/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_46″providing/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” a service, /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_47″adding/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” strategic /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_48″value/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_49″and/span/span span class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_50″determining/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_51″the/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_52″opportunities/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” (/spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_53″or/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_54″not/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;”) /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_55″provided/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_56″by/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_57″the/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_58″IT/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_59″vendors/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;”./spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_60″
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br /Follow/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_61″this/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_62″link/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_63″to/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_64″re-visit/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_65″the/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” /spanspan class=”blsp-spelling-error” style=”font-family:arial;”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_66″live/span/spanspan style=”font-family:arial;” blog – /spana style=”font-family: arial;” href=”http://strategic-hcm.blogspot.com/2009/04/scott-mcarthur-hr-20-end-of-business.html”span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_67″Romania/span/span span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_68″HR/span/span 2.0 span class=”blsp-spelling-error”span id=”SPELLING_ERROR_69″Conference/span/span 2009/aspan style=”font-family:arial;”./span div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/304239242092615684-4902292530433715116?l=mcarthursrant.blogspot.com’//div

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