theirishtimes--2019-03-24--Mater nurses fundraising to improve patient experience

A group of nurses at Dublin’s Mater Hospital are attempting to raise money to create a more comfortable environment for their patients.  The six oncology nurses, who work on St Vincent’s Ward, are planning to run this year’s Women’s Mini Marathon to raise funds to buy items such as fitness equipment for those staying in the unit.  “Unfortunately we all know a family who has been affected by a cancer diagnosis. As nurses working on St Vincent’s Ward, we see what patients and families go through first hand, and our aim is to try and improve their experience with us as much as we can from diagnosis to discharge,” the nurses said.  Many of the patients will stay on the ward for up to a year receiving chemotherapy and other treatments.  The nurses recently surveyed patients and their families to ask them what they felt would make their stay easier.  Nurse Joanna Lambe said responding patients felt they would benefit from fitness equipment and other forms of holistic care.  “While we have all the requisite medical equipment, there is nothing for patients who are stuck for weeks on end in the hospital. . . . after chemotherapy patients have compromised immune systems so they can’t exercise outside or in public gyms,” she said.  “Some of the patients bring in exercise bikes to keep themselves motivated. Other patients bring in Xboxes, books and iPads to entertain themselves while they are here,” she said.  “We want to raise enough money to get exercise bikes for the ward, a library, and camp beds for people who are staying over the night with patients,” she said.  Ms Lambe said more funding should be provided in hospitals for amenities that will make patients and visitors stays more comfortable.  “In a hospital setting, there is only funding for the bare minimum - to get patients well and get them discharged but not for the kind of things that will make our patients and visitors stay more comfortable,” she said.  “We have 35 beds on the ward, but only 25 are open due to understaffing so the spare mattresses from those beds are put into patients’ rooms to sleep on the floor, so we need proper camp beds,” she said.  A fundraising page has been set up on Facebook.


thepoliticalinsider--2019-09-05--Nurse Tells Pro-Life Nurses To Stay Out Of Health Care

Mary Margaret Olohan on September 4, 2019    * **Associate professor and clinician-scientist Monica R. McLemore wrote in an op-ed that nurses who don’t want to provide abortions should not go into health care.**   * **McLemore draws on a recent HHS announcement regarding a nurse who was forced to perform an abortion against her will.**   * **Pro-life health care professionals commented on McLemore’s op-ed, saying abortion is never to be considered health care.**  Nurses who don’t want to provide abortions should not go into health care, according to associate professor and clinician-scientist Monica R. McLemore.  [McLemore](https://profiles.ucsf.edu/monica.mclemore) bashed pro-life nurses in an op-ed in Vice titled “[If You Don’t Want to Provide Abortions, Don’t Go Into Health Care.](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9kead5/vermont-abortion- nurse-if-you-dont-want-to-provide-abortions-dont-go-into-healthcare)”  “To be clear, I respect people’s desires not to do things that go against their moral or religious beliefs,” the registered nurse wrote. “I know that professional nursing in the United States was established in religiously affiliated institutions. However, people shouldn’t go into health care if they don’t want to provide health care.”  McLemore referred to a case involving a nurse at the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) who filed a conscience and religious complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights against UVMMC.  The nurse’s complaint, filed on May 9, 2018, said she was forced to assist in an [abortion](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj4rMDL67fkAhUJ01kKHYaWBCgQFjAAegQIABAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdailycaller.com%2F2019%2F09%2F04 %2Fchristine-ford-abortion-kavanaugh%2F&usg=AOvVaw14N584sF9-rxzOi1lIW1j9) that violated her conscience rights, [according to HHS](https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2019/08/28/ocr-issues-notice-violation- university-vermont-medical-center-after-it-unlawfully-forced-nurse.html).  HHS notified UVMMC on Aug. 28 that the center had violated the nurse’s [rights](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj4rMDL67fkAhUJ01kKHYaWBCgQFjAEegQIARAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdailycaller.com%2F2019%2F08%2F27 %2Fjudge-blocks-abortion-law-missouri%2F&usg=AOvVaw0_o2waVOKINEhAD62wQ4T8) — a notification that demands the center bring its rules into compliance with federal requirements within 30 days or face losing federal funds, including $1.6 million received from HHS’s Health Resources and Services Administration over the past three years, [according to The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/trump-administration-accuses- vermont-hospital-of-civil-rights-violation-related-to- abortion/2019/08/28/092b12a8-c9a2-11e9-a4f3-c081a126de70_story.html).  “There’s a larger issue here that isn’t being discussed,” McLemore wrote. “Who is worthy to serve the public with comprehensive reproductive services, and what are the standards of care that should be provided?”  “Privileging the health care workforce over the needs of the public runs counter to our commitment to patient-centered care,” McLemore wrote. She argued conscience rules disproportionately affect people of color.  “This is why the accommodations for conscience need to be re-examined as unethical and incompatible with the social contract to which members of the health professions commit,” McLemore wrote.  The associate professor said she would have asked the nurse “to wrestle with why her discomfort with abortion kept her from empathizing with the person who needed it.”  “My research has shown that nurses wrestle with ethically challenging care in real time, because there are few places in their educational preparation and on-the-job training to do so,” McLemore wrote. “Once afforded the opportunity to critically dissect their views and clarify their values, nurses are able to understand that the people we serve are experts by experience and know best what  _they_  need — more so than we do.”  Other medical professionals disagree with McLemore’s point of [view](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=7&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj4rMDL67fkAhUJ01kKHYaWBCgQFjAGegQIBhAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdailycaller.com%2F2019%2F08%2F19 %2Fplanned-parenthood-title-ix-trump%2F&usg=AOvVaw2Zf4qkkItyBs1qAXFiSoKr).  “Despite the euphemisms of abortion as ‘women’s health care,’ it must be emphasized that abortion is not health care,” Dr. [Ingrid Skop](https://lozierinstitute.org/team-member/ingrid-skop-m-d-f-a-c-o-g/), a board member of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It is a medical procedure that addresses the social problem of unintended pregnancy.”  “Disrupting the normal process of pregnancy and ending the life of a baby by abortion is the very antithesis of health care,” Skop added.  Skop also said that while she agreed with McLemore that serving as a medical professional is a privilege, she also understands “the harm that can result to a woman and her child from the medical unnecessary procedure of abortion, and I do not choose to use my healing skills for a life-destroying procedure.”  “Abortion is not health care, and no twisted logic can justify it as health care,” [David Prentice](https://lozierinstitute.org/team-member/david- prentice/), vice president and research director for the Charlotte Lozier Institute, told the DCNF.  “It would be tragic to force any health care worker to break their sacred oath committed to healing and coerce them to participate in an act so clearly against their conscience,” Prentice added.  Registered Nurse and Family Nurse Practitioner Sharon MacKinnon commented on the matter when HHS notified UVMMC, saying that “Doctors and nurses should never be forced to choose between risking their jobs or violating the dictates of their consciences in assisting or performing an abortion.”  “The convictions that stop me from assisting in abortion – the taking of an innocent human life – are the same convictions of compassion and care for the most vulnerable that drew me to the nursing profession in the first place,” McKinnon said in a statement. “I’m grateful the law has been rightly enforced in this instance, as it should be in all cases, so that what happened to this nurse never happens to another medical provider.”


upi--2019-12-18--More than 15,000 nurses strike in Northern Ireland

Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Thousands of nurses in Northern Ireland walked out in a 12-hour labor strike Wednesday, rallying for better pay and greater patient safety.  A total of about 15,000 nurses participated in the walkout.  The nurses have complained their pay has fallen by 15 percent over the past eight years, at a rate well behind nurses working in England, Scotland and Wales. There is a 13 percent nursing vacancy in Northern Ireland, compared to 11 percent in England and 6 percent in Scotland.  "They have tolerated this for so long and they say today enough is enough and we need to see something change for patients," Royal College of Nursing Northern Ireland Director Pat Cullen said.  Officials noted widespread disruptions to healthcare services in Northern Ireland during Wednesday's strike -- from canceled appointments to delayed medical procedures. Ambulance services have also been slowed.  "Regrettably, as a result of the widespread nature of the strike, numerous appointments and treatments have been canceled and many services across our hospitals and the community care sector have had to be stood down or reduced," the Health and Social Care Board said in a statement.  The board added that emergency rooms were still open and said patients should seek "alternative service" for medical care Wednesday if they need non-emergency care.


liveaction--2019-10-31--Nearly 1,000 Northern Ireland medical professionals refuse to commit abortion

A general practitioner in Northern Ireland has gathered the signatures of nearly 1,000 medical professionals who have vowed not to commit abortions. On October 22, abortion was decriminalized in Northern Ireland when the clock struck midnight on the deadline set by Westminster for the government of Northern Ireland to re-assemble or see abortion become legalized. Regulations for legalized abortion are required to be in place by March 31, 2020, leaving months in which there are no laws on abortion.  Dr. Andrew Cupples, a Northern Irish GP who opposed the decriminalization of abortion in all cases including rape, wrote a letter to the Northern Ireland Secretary stating that he and the other 911 medical professionals who signed the letter refuse to commit or assist in abortions. Cupples said that they would leave their jobs if their superiors attempted to force them to participate, according to The Independent. Those who signed the letter include doctors, midwives, and nurses.  READ: Pro-lifers in Northern Ireland react to forced legalization of abortion with #DarkestDay  “Hundreds of healthcare professionals in northern Ireland will refuse to be involved in abortion services,” Cupples told The Independent. “There are even people who are planning to walk away from the healthcare service if they are forced to participate in abortion services. There are also people in obstetrics and gynecology and midwives who are worried if they do not agree to be trained in abortion they could be forced to do so or reprimanded by their employers or a professional body,” he noted.  The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and other politicians attempted to recall the Northern Ireland Assembly in order to block the decriminalization of abortion; however, they failed to elect a new speaker. Westminster has published guidelines for Northern Ireland to use regarding abortion, but those guidelines don’t include conscience protections for midwives and medical staff, according to Cupples. Grainne Teggart, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland campaign manager, doesn’t think midwives or medical staff deserve conscience protections because they don’t personally carry out the abortions.  Cupples is right to be concerned about medical professionals who oppose abortion being forced to participate in them. A nurse at the University of Vermont Medical Center was forced to participate in an abortion or lose her job in 2017 and she filed a complaint with the civil rights office in 2018. Three other nurses spoke to Congress in 2017 about being forced to participate in abortions against their will. And in 2011, 12 nurses in New Jersey were told they must help carry out abortions or lose their jobs.  “I’ll never forget that day as I watched in horror as the doctor dismembered and removed the baby’s bloody limbs and I had to account for all the pieces,” nurse Cathy DeCarlo told Congress in 2017 about an abortion she was forced to take part in. “I still have nightmares about that day.”  “Like” Live Action News on Facebook for more pro-life news and commentary!


newyorkpost--2019-01-19--How a 1970s satire changed the medical profession

When Stephen Joseph Bergman was a medical intern at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital in the late 1970s, he came to the institution with youth and grand ideas.  “We came into the hospital internship as idealists,” he says. “We quickly found that our way of wanting to do good medicine ran into the received wisdom of the medical system. There was a tremendous clash. Midway through the internship, a voice in my head said, ‘This is brutal and unfair to both doctors and patients.’ Someone has to tell this story, and it looks like it has to be me.”  And tell it he did.  His book, “The House of God” was published in 1978 under the pen name Samuel Shem and caused quite a ruckus, especially among the older, established faculty. It was a satire about the medical industry, yet it told truths about a system that pushed doctors to make decisions that went against good medicine.  “There’s a group of patients whom we described as GOMERS — Get Out of My Emergency Room,” says Bergman, who now prefers to go just by Shem. “They were chronic visitors with 18 issues who really wanted to die, but we couldn’t let them go because we had to make money. We’d have to take care of them in extreme different ways. Law No. 1 in the book was GOMERS don’t die. We were so overloaded with the GOMERS. It was a little hard to do what we wanted to save other lives.”  It also sold more than 2 million copies, is now published in 30 languages and is widely referred to as one of the most important medical novels of the 20th century. Many doctors read it multiple times over the course of their careers. Shem is currently teaching a seminar on the book in conjunction with its 40th anniversary.  A sequel, “Man’s 4th Best Hospital,” is set to be published in October 2019 from Penguin/Random.


naturalnews--2019-03-13--Why the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons is strongly opposed to mandatory vaccines

(Natural News) With all the current hysteria about measles and the need for people to be vaccinated it can be easy to label those who choose not to allow their families to receive vaccines as law-breaking, selfish and uninformed conspiracy theorists. This narrative is pushed so strongly by the mainstream media that even those of us who have chosen not to vaccinate because of serious reservations about side effects or for ethical reasons might start to second guess our own decisions.  That is why a statement issued last month by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is so reassuring. These are not conspiracy theorists; this is an organization that represents thousands of mainstream physicians in all specialties across the United States – educated, informed medical professionals who care enough about their patients to take a stand against the World Health Organization and others who have labeled vaccine skeptics as a “global health threat.”  The statement, which was submitted to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions February 26th, warns that the organization “strongly opposes federal interference in medical decisions, including mandated vaccines,” calling such interference “a serious intrusion into individual liberty, autonomy, and parental decisions about child-rearing.”  The AAPS presents several arguments for its strong stance against forced vaccinations. For one thing, it insists that patients have the right to be fully informed of all the benefits and risks associated with any medical procedure, including vaccination, and then, after evaluating the facts, to decide for themselves — and their children — whether the benefits outweigh the risks. (Related: Kids got 11 vaccines in 1986 and 53 in 2017… why? The answer is all about Big Pharma profits.)  100% organic essential oil sets now available for your home and personal care, including Rosemary, Oregano, Eucalyptus, Tea Tree, Clary Sage and more, all 100% organic and laboratory tested for safety. A multitude of uses, from stress reduction to topical first aid. See the complete listing here, and help support this news site.  They also note that while protecting public health is important, the risks of cancer, death or crippling complications from vaccines cannot be ignored. To properly evaluate these risks far more rigorous scientific studies would be required:  There are no rigorous safety studies of sufficient power to rule out a much higher risk of complications, even one in 10,000, for vaccines. Such studies would require an adequate number of subjects, a long duration (years, not days), an unvaccinated control group (“placebo” must be truly inactive such as saline, not the adjuvant or everything-but-the-intended-antigen), and consideration of all adverse health events (including neurodevelopment disorders).  The AAPS also recognizes that vaccines carry serious risks, and that these risks are acknowledged by both the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress. While the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has paid out over $4 billion to vaccine injury victims, pharmaceutical companies are immune from prosecution, “so the incentive to develop safer products is much diminished. Manufacturers may even refuse to make available a product believed to be safer, such as monovalent measles vaccine in preference to MMR (measles-mumps-rubella). Consumer refusal is the only incentive to do better.”  Another serious issue they point out is that many vaccines that were declared safe in the past have turned out to be truly dangerous and have been pulled from the market – after inflicting serious damage, of course:  The smallpox vaccine is so dangerous that you can’t get it now, despite the weaponization of smallpox. Rabies vaccine is given only after a suspected exposure or to high-risk persons such as veterinarians. The whole-cell pertussis vaccine was withdrawn from the U.S. market, a decade later than from the Japanese market, because of reports of severe permanent brain damage. The acellular vaccine that replaced it is evidently safer, though somewhat less effective.  And the Mumps, Measles and Rubella (MMR) vaccine, still very much in use today, has resulted in many serious, documented complications, with experts warning that the safety studies on this vaccine – both pre- and post-marketing – were totally inadequate.  In addition, vaccines seem to increase the potency of many of the diseases they are supposed to protect against. For example, the AAPS warns:  Measles, when it does occur, is four to five times worse than in pre-vaccination times, according to Lancet Infectious Diseases, because of the changed age distribution: more adults, whose vaccine-based immunity waned, and more infants, who no longer receive passive immunity from their naturally immune mother to protect them during their most vulnerable period.  The fact is, there are serious risks associated with vaccinations. Many people will evaluate these risks and decide that the benefits make the risk worth taking. Others will decide that they are not willing to jeopardize their children’s health by allowing them to receive vaccines. Irrespective, mandatory vaccinations cannot be imposed when those imposing them can offer no guarantees regarding the safety or even the efficiency of these dangerous medical treatments.


theguardianuk--2019-01-08--Female surgeons frustrated by male-dominated field study

Female surgeons frustrated by male-dominated field – study

An old boys’ network, exclusion from events, scepticism from patients and incompatibility with family life are among the factors fuelling a dearth of women in surgery, research has revealed.  According to NHS figures for 2018, 1,138 women and 959 men were undertaking their first foundation year of medical training. However, only 14.5% of those at the top of their profession were women, with 1,389 female consultants to 8,164 male.  A small survey of women working in surgery has attempted to examine why so few pursue a career in the field.  Writing in the journal BMJ Open, the authors report how they posted a survey on both Twitter and a Facebook group for women of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland in October 2017.  Of the 81 participants, who spanned all levels of training, 88% said they felt surgery was a male-dominated field, with 53% citing trauma and orthopaedic surgery (which deals with the musculoskeletal system) as sexist – the highest proportion for any speciality. Overall, 59% of participants said they had experienced sexism.  When it came to barriers for women, 34% said they felt the surgery profession did not make motherhood or a family life very likely, while 16% said it felt like an “old boys’ club”. The same proportion raised childcare issues, while 10% flagged unsocial working hours as a barrier. More than a quarter said that other specialisms offered a better work-life balance.  “There is a culture that basically discourages females to pursue this career,” said Dr Maria Irene Bellini of Imperial College, London, first author of the study, saying that visibility of senior women in the profession is a key factor. “I strongly believe that you cannot be what you cannot see,” she said, adding that lack of support during pregnancy is another issue.  The authors say common themes emerged among written comments, including conflicts between personal life and career, the problematically rigid structure of surgical training – and blatant discrimination.  “I got told by another surgeon that he left vascular surgery for plastics because there were ‘too many women surgeons and they caused too much drama’,” wrote one participant, while another commented: “Patients don’t think women can be doctors, let alone surgeons.”  Bellini said such perceptions were damaging: “You feel like you have to fight not only against the institution for the way [it is] organised [to] favour men, but also some patients that don’t trust females because there is a general perception, dominated by unconscious bias, [that] this is a male-dominated field and a man’s profession.”  When the team asked how the field could be changed to retain women, 42% of participants said more flexible career paths and training were important, but almost a third noted that current flexible pathways are looked down on.  However, the study was small and reached only a subset of surgeons, and there could also have been bias in who answered the survey.  Bellini said the attrition of women in surgery showed something serious was amiss. “Why, if there is not discrimination, are the numbers what they are?” she said.  Scarlett McNally, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at a hospital in Eastbourne who has been a surgeon for 25 years, said concerns raised by the research were very familiar. “This is exactly what women surgeons are saying and feeling,” she said, adding that structural changes, mentoring and tackling sexist behaviours are important.  “In all specialties, structures should be improved to make it easier for women and men – or the second parent– to take shared parental leave or less-than-full-time training. This would not only improve life for these doctors, but also show future cohorts that this is possible,” she said.  But McNally said the situation was improving, noting that the experiences captured by the survey could stretch back over decades, and there was now a legal maximum of working 48 hours a week – although surveys suggest some trainees work considerably longer hours.  “Now we only do life- or limb-threatening surgery at night. Hence we no longer need the heroic, sleep-deprived image of a surgeon; there is more team work and the learning opportunities can easily be focused into a shorter working week,” she said. “A variety of lifestyles is possible around this fantastic career.”


theirishtimes--2019-01-04--Aspiring doctors see college operation at Surgeons open day

More than 800 Leaving Certificate students attended an open day at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) on Thursday and most said they were hoping to become doctors.  Sixth-year secondary student Mackenzie O’Connor knows what a career in medicine will entail.  “I’ve heard that the health service isn’t the best, but I really want to make a difference,” she said at the RCSI open day.  At age 16, she is younger than most preparing for Leaving Certificate and the HPAT. O’Connor skipped transition year to attend the Institute of Education, so she could keep moving towards her dream of becoming a doctor.  “I didn’t want a break. I needed to keep going,” she said.  She is the first in her family to pursue medicine, so she spent years researching the profession.  “Everything I read about it I’m just like yes, yes, yes,” she said. “It sounds really tough and hard work, but I think someone has to help.”  The RCSI’s €80 million building, which opened in 2018, is “state of the art” and privately funded.  “Are there many breaks between lectures?” one aspiring medic asked.  Waiting to enter a plaster-casting workshop, Adib Collot (16), a transition-year student from Yeats College Galway, has the medical profession in his blood. He chose his career at the age of four, when his mother gave birth to his brother and he got a sense of hospitals for the first time.  “I know I would have to learn to deal with stress, but I think being a doctor would be so exciting,” he said.  Knowing that places in medicine are highly competitive, he is spurred on by a poster in his bedroom that reads: “I want to be a doctor.”  He aims for “a taste of all of the specialities” before settling on one area of medicine.  “I’m just so interested in the human body,” he said. “I’ve always been curious.”  In a mock-delivery room, a group of teens hovered awkwardly around Lucinda, the RCSI’s €75,000 birthing mannequin.  She appointed a girl to “pull the baby’s head”, while another student to monitor the mother’s vital signs on a laptop.  Lucinda was beside herself: “Is everything alright with my baby?” she screamed.  One student fainted in the delivery room, which an RCSI spokesperson said was “not uncommon”.  Some of the students had never heard of the HSE. “Does the ‘H’ stand for health?” one of them asked.  However, many had researched the field. Best-selling book This is Going to Hurt, written by a junior doctor in Britain’s cash-strapped NHS, Adam, Kay, is a popular read among the dedicated hopefuls.  The RCSI’s fourth-year students have, by now, experienced Ireland’s healthcare system first hand.  Ciara Malone (22) is due to graduate in 2020 and hopes to gain an internship in an Irish hospital.  “When you go into the hospitals you see the world. The hospitals are completely underfunded and overcrowded, which puts all this into perspective,” she said, gesturing to the RCSI facilities around her.  “I might have to emigrate to the UK for paediatric surgery, because there are more opportunities to specialise there.” She explained that emigration is common for graduates looking to gain fellowships and to become expert in a specific field, but that most of the RCSI’s Irish graduates hope to end up working in Ireland.  Prof Arnold Hill, head of the school of medicine, believes there is “a real positive” in graduates learning from hospitals abroad.  “The graduates coming back from Australia are more enlivened, more energised. We strategically try to recruit that Irish cohort back,” he said.  He emphasised that the RCSI was not just teaching students a degree but a career, pushing them into Irish hospitals from their first year of training.  “It looks glamorous, but it teaches students how to practise in a real-life environment,” he said.


theirishtimes--2019-02-07--College of Surgeons in Ireland to become a university

The Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI) is set to become the country’s eighth university under new legislation likely to complete its passage through the Oireachtas shortly.  The 235-year-old Dublin college has been lobbying the government for many years to grant it university status to help boost its chances of attracting top international researchers and students.  Key obstacles to the RCSI being recognised as a university have included concerns that it could create a precedent for many other institutions to do so, which could end up diminishing the status of the term.  The governance arrangement of the college, founded by royal charter in 1784, and the fact that staff are paid privately have also been cited as issues.  However, Minister of State for Higher Education Mary Mitchell O’Connor is understood to be preparing an amendment to legislation which would pave the way for a change in its status.  The proposed change is likely to be added in the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill, which is making its way through the Oireachtas.  Sources say the legal change, which is being drafted on foot of advice from the Attorney General, will be framed in such a way that it will not create a precedent for other institutions to be able to claim use of the title.  Following the legal change, the college is likely to describe itself as the “RCSI university of medicine and health sciences”.  The college, based on St Stephen’s Green, has about 3,500 students and trainees and is planning to expand to create a “university quarter” in the area.  It recently built a €80 million medical education building on York Street which it says offers students the most advanced facilities in Europe.  The latest global rankings indicate it was in the top 2 per cent of universities worldwide.  In its campaign to secure university status, the RCSI has pointed out that while it is often regarded as a private institution, it maintains it is a “public, statutory, regulated institution”.  It says its statutory status extends back to its foundation by charter which was subsequently amended by the Oireachtas in the mid-1990s. This statutory status, it has argued, is similar to that of Trinity College Dublin.  The RCSI has also pointed out that it is a not-for-profit registered charity and is regulated by the Charities Regulator.


thetelegraph--2019-01-07--Bone surgeons the most sexist in the NHS new poll suggests

Bone surgeons the most sexist in the NHS, new poll suggests

Bone surgeons are the most sexist in the NHS, according to a confidential poll which suggests discrimination against female staff is rife.  Results of an online survey found more than half of female surgeons in the UK have experienced or witnessed workplace abuse, with those working in orthopaedics most likely to have suffered.  The specialism, concerned with treating conditions of the musculoskeletal system, has long had a reputation within medicine as physically demanding due to the nature of the operations involved.  However, new techniques and technologies are reducing the strength requirements of clinicians, experts have said.  Published in BMJ Open, the poll found that 43 per cent of women respondents reported sexism while working in orthopaedics, the highest of any specialism.  Meanwhile 13 per cent reported sexism in cardiothoracic surgery, and 12 per cent in general surgery.  Despite women making up half of medical school entrants, less than a third opt to become surgeons.  The new survey was sent to members of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland Facebook group, and was posted on Twitter for two weeks.  The majority - 88 per cent - of the 81 respondents felt surgery remained male-dominated and six out of ten reported they had experienced or witnessed discrimination against women in the workplace.


thetelegraph--2019-02-04--300000 extra operations could be carried out every year if surgeons planned holidays and lists bett

300,000 extra operations could be carried out every year if surgeons planned holidays and lists better

An extra 300,000 operations could be carried out in England if surgeons planned their holidays in advance and managed their time better, watchdogs have suggested.  Regulators said better scheduling of surgery, and planning ahead could mean around 290,000 more operations carried out annually.  NHS Improvement on Monday urged hospitals to use a simple model, which means surgical staff agree their annual leave six weeks in advance and plan their surgical lists afterwards.  The watchdog is concerned that patients are being forced to suffer needlessly long waits - and suffer cancellations - because of haphazard planning, late starts and early finishes.  In particular, it is concerned that too often surgery lists are planned without knowing if there are sufficient staff on duty to carry out the work.  Their study, carried out with the Royal College of Surgeons, examined productivity at 92 trusts across the NHS.  It found that a third of operating lists started at least half an hour late -  while almost one quarter finished at least one hour early.  For the longest surgical sessions, as much as two hours was wasted, the research found.  The time wasted, combined with time lost for lack of the right staff could have been spent carrying out up to 291,237 more operations - a 17 per cent increase in efficiency, the study found.


collectiveevolution--2019-10-12--California’s First Surgeon General: Screen Every Student For Childhood Trauma

Drew Scanlon, better known as the guy from the “blinking white guy” meme, has used his accidental platform to raise money for MS research and treatment. The meme/GIF he became famous for is the type you’d see after a comment or post that might be surprising to someone. After all, the original video this meme was made from shows Drew’s surprised reaction after hearing a gamer describe what he was doing while playing a video game.  In 2013, an online video game show called “Unprofessional Fridays” featured one host playing a video game while explaining what he was doing. The game was being watched by a number of people, Drew included. The gamer says in the video “I’ve been doing some farming with my hoe here,” and Drew became surprised by how the sentence came out. His now iconic raised eyebrows followed by a series of blinks caught the attention of someone, who then turned it into a GIF that became famous.  If you’re not quite following, check out the 12 second video below:  In the top right hand corner, you see Drew and his reaction. This quickly became a meme that has been used on the internet millions of times.  His meme fame generated a substantial following, as his Twitter account now has over 74,000 followers. And now Drew is using that platform to give back to society in a way that’s close to his heart. Drew watched as some close to him and his friends suffered from MS and thus decided to use his platform to raise money for MS research.  Drew has so far helped raise over $31,000 through his online network that was built because of a meme. His team’s goal is $35,000.  People can be quick to call out social media as a bad thing, similar to how we sometimes view cell phones. But are these things really to blame for the challenges that people have with them like spending too much time on them or becoming self-conscious? Or are we simply using these tools in an unbalanced manner?  It’s true that, with at least Facebook, tactics were employed to make people addicted to these platforms. But that doesn’t mean we’ll always fall into those traps. The greater our self awareness, the less these external factors affect us. To be honest, aside from this good news story, this was one of the first things that came to my mind.  I have personally been raising awareness about things in our world I feel we need to shift and helping people transform their lives personally through social media for over 10 years. Collective Evolution may not be anywhere without social media and yet we often view SM as a negative aspect of our society.  The reality is, social media is a tool that can help connect people and create a positive impact on society, providing we allow it to be that. The challenges we have with social media aren’t just because of social media itself, it’s revealing the challenges we individually have within our own lives. It acts as a mirror into our consciousness and the stories, belief systems and insecurities we have within ourselves.  To blame social media, however, is perhaps not the most effective way of addressing the challenges we face within our own mental health. Even running from social media doesn’t address these stories within ourselves, as they will once again be triggered by the next thing that comes along.  So What Do We Do?  If you find yourself comparing yourself to others, getting caught up in a rat race via social media, or always wanting to portray a perfect life, simply notice and reflect on these tendencies. Why are you trying to do this? What story are you telling yourself about why you need to appear this way?  When emotions arise, write them out and journal about your thoughts to get a clearer picture of the thought processes and programs running through your mind that cause you to feel insecure or bad about yourself. It’s usually not what another person is doing to us on social media that is harming us, it’s the power we give to our own stories.  As we begin to become aware and reflect on these stories, we now can SEE them for what they are. Stories… From there, it’s about stopping those neurological pathways from repeating every time these stores come up. To do that, every time you notice yourself in that state, come back to the present moment by taking 5 deep breaths in through your nose. The breath can bring you back to the present, and will make YOU, the observer, the one who begins to deprogram your old patterns causing you to feel down.


drudgereport--2019-03-13--Sex-Change Surgeon Posted Patients Genitals On INSTA

Sex-Change Surgeon Posted Patient's Genitals On INSTA...

A Miami surgeon known for his gender reassignment work with trans patients has lost his job after it was discovered that he’d been posting offensive, explicit images of his patients’ body parts to a secret Instagram account without their consent.  According to The Trans Advocate’s Noah Adams, Dr. Christopher Salgado of the University of Miami Health System had been operating the since-deleted Instagram account, @sexsurgeon, since at least as far back as October of last year. There, he would post pictures of surgically removed genitals, pairing them offensive captions intended to be humorous.  In one photo, posted on Valentine’s Day, Salgado rearranged a patient’s dissected, severed penis into a heart shape, tagging it “#whatthefuckisthat,” and he captioned a photo of a dildo removed from a person’s rectum with “could have been avoided if the transman had a real phalloplasty” and the hashtag “#realdicksmatter.” Salgado — who appeared on an episode of TLC’s I Am Jazz, providing a gender reassignment surgery consultation to series star Jazz Jennings — also used racist and ableist language in his captions, tagging a penile enhancement pic “#asiancock” and calling a trans patient in need of a phalloplasty implant an “implant cripple.”  Salgado’s secret Instagram account was discovered by an unnamed source and posted to a phalloplasty support group on Facebook on Feb. 17, The Trans Advocate reports. Before long, a number of emails and a 500-signature strong petition had been sent to Salgado, his bosses, and WPATH (the World Professional Association for Transgender Health) calling for accountability. The University of Miami Health System responded swiftly, ending Salgado’s employment within two days.  “The University of Miami does not comment on the detailed status of employees,” Salgado’s former employers told The Trans Advocate. “However, we can confirm that Dr. Christopher Salgado is no longer employed by the University of Miami. We continue to have a team of experts providing the full continuum of care for gender reassignment patients.”  While warranted, Salgado’s termination will likely complicate a number of trans patients scheduled surgeries. (Gender reassignment surgery and other trans-affirming procedures are generally scheduled at least a year or more in advance.) The Trans Advocate says the University of Miami plans to reassign Salgado’s patients to Dr. Ajani Nugent and that the Johns Hopkins Center for Transgender Health.


npr--2019-01-14--A Surgeon Reflects On Death Life And The Incredible Gift Of Organ Transplant

A Surgeon Reflects On Death, Life And The 'Incredible Gift' Of Organ Transplant

Surgeons performed more than 21,000 kidney transplants and 8,000 liver transplants in 2018, according the United Network for Organ Sharing. **shapecharge/shapecharge/Getty Images** ****hide caption****  ****toggle caption****  shapecharge/shapecharge/Getty Images  Surgeons performed more than 21,000 kidney transplants and 8,000 liver transplants in 2018, according the United Network for Organ Sharing.  shapecharge/shapecharge/Getty Images  When Joshua Mezrich was a medical student on the first day of surgical rotation, he was called into the operating room to witness a kidney transplant.  What he saw that day changed him.  After the donor kidney came out of ice and the clamps on it were released, he says, "it turned pink and literally, in front of my eyes, this urine just started squirting out onto the field."  Mezrich was blown away: "I just had this sense like, 'This is so amazing, what we're doing, and what an incredible gift. And could I ever do this? Could I ever be part of this exchange, this beautiful thing?' "  He went on to become a transplant surgeon and has since performed hundreds of kidney, liver and pancreas transplants. He also has assisted in operations involving other organs.  Each organ responds to transplant in a different way.  "The liver will start pouring bile. The lungs start essentially breathing," Mezrich says. "Maybe the most dramatic organ, of course, is the heart, because you put it in and you kind of hit it like you hit a computer, maybe you give a little shock and it just starts beating, and that's pretty darn dramatic."  Mezrich is an associate professor in the division of multiorgan transplantation at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison. He reflects on his experiences as a transplant surgeon and shares stories from the operating room in his book, _When Death Becomes Life._  * * *  ### Interview Highlights  **On the different types of organ donors**  There are a few different scenarios [where] we take organs from deceased donors, the most common being those that are brain-dead. Those patients have no blood flow to their brain, so they're considered legally dead, but their heart is still beating, their organs are getting blood flow, and they're often in a fairly stable situation, so we can take our time.  ... it's an interesting thing, because you really think about what really is death? How is it defined? Do patients feel the same way as we do?  Joshua Mezrich, transplant surgeon  There's a second type of donor, which we call "DCD," or donation after circulatory death. These patients are actually still officially alive, but they've reached the point where the decision has been made to withdraw support. And in those patients, we wait to withdraw support until everything has been discussed, and often the family is in the room when that support is withdrawn by their primary doctor, not by us. ...  You know, it's an interesting thing, because you really think about what really is death? How is it defined? Do patients feel the same way as we do? These are kind of some of the really interesting challenging parts of being in this field.  **On how transplant takes a long time and requires stamina from doctors**  Notes from a Transplant Surgeon  by [Joshua D. Mezrich](https://www.npr.org/books/authors/685008355/joshua-d-mezrich)  Hardcover, 368 pages |  purchase  close overlay  ### Buy Featured Book  Title      When Death Becomes Life Subtitle      Notes from a Transplant Surgeon Author      Joshua D. Mezrich  Your purchase helps support NPR programming. [How?](https://help.npr.org/customer/portal/articles/2168887-how-can-my- online-purchases-support-npr-programming)  I train a lot of people in transplantation, we call them fellows. ... These are people who've finished their general surgery residency and now they're getting additional training [in] transplant, and they're excellent. ... Being a surgeon, particularly liver transplant, is all about kind of intestinal fortitude or inner strength. You've just gotta keep your wits and stay strong through all the different things that maybe can go wrong and fight through it. That's certainly what a liver transplant is like.  **On having to make the judgment call about giving livers to patients with alcoholic liver disease**  Transplant is one of those things that it's an amazing science and the surgery is very heroic, but if there isn't the social support and the ability to take care of the organ, it'll surely fail. You have to take all these medications to prevent rejection. You have to follow up a lot. Sometimes you have to battle through different complications, and so it really requires a village, if you will, to support any type of transplant.  This is a really important topic when we think about liver transplantation. So in the early days of liver transplant — '60s, '70s — initially people decided not to transplant patients with alcoholic liver disease because of the thought that they did this to themselves and maybe they didn't deserve it. I think now most people would agree that alcoholism is a disease, and it's a disease that is hard to treat and it can come back.  So rather than maybe think about it as, "These people are being stupid," or they're like your silly friends who drink too much, they truly have this addiction and it's a disease like other diseases, like hepatitis C, like the other things we transplant with more complex names. And it's been shown that we can get good outcomes in patients with alcoholic liver disease, as long as they have insight into their disease, and kind of have a support system to try and deal with the transplant afterwards.  But it is controversial, because patients with alcoholic liver disease often have a lot of failed relationships, have a lot of challenges in their life, don't have great family support. It's challenging to talk about some of these patients and wonder if we are going to get the best outcome, if this transplant is actually going to fix their problem or not. I think our health care system likes these heroic treatments like a liver transplant, but we don't put enough into prevention, into really understanding and managing the disease, and that can be sometimes a challenge. We've had many incredible victories with transplanting livers into [patients with] alcoholic liver disease but we've also had some dramatic failures.  **On what it's like talking to the families of donors**  This is really one of, in my opinion, the most special parts of being in my field of being a transplant surgeon. I was really nervous the first time I met a donor family because I thought they were gonna look at me and think I'm this vulture who is taking the organs out of their loved one, and I could only imagine the images they might have had.  But I'll never forget that interaction and most that I've had with the donors: They hung on every word. ... They wanted to know about the recipients. It truly was this beautiful legacy of their loved one, often who has died unexpectedly, sometimes a young person, and it gives them this positive thing to hold onto in this otherwise terrible time.  It is so incredibly special, and I truly believe the donors, even the deceased donors, are our patients just as much as the recipients. It's so important that we connect with the family, that we let them understand the process, that we are able to do a great job to make this incredible gift work. It's quite emotional. It really is an incredible bond when we interact with these families.  **On saying a few words about the donor before the operation begins**  I want to reiterate as many times as possible how important the donors are, how much they're heroes to us, and we always want to remember their stories and this gift that they're giving. It's very emotional when we go on these procurements, and in our group when we go on a procurement, when we're in the operating room, we always take a pause and our people from our organ procurement team will, after a moment of silence, will read something. Often it's a poem or something that one of the loved ones asked us to say about the person, maybe a little bit about who they were, what was important to them. Sometimes it has a religious base, sometimes it doesn't.  And we all kind of sit and think about it, and it is very special. It's emotional. And then the second that's over, we move on and really go after the task at hand. So it's interesting. You have this emotional experience, and then you have to very quickly kind of push it out of the way and and move on to the operation, but it's always very special.  _Sam Briger and Mooj Zadie produced and edited the audio of this interview. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Scott Hensley adapted it for the Web._


npr--2019-12-05--Trauma Surgeon Battles Bullets In The Operating Room And The Community

Trauma Surgeon Battles Bullets In The Operating Room And The Community  Dr. Laurie Punch plunged her gloved hands into Sidney Taylor's open chest in a St. Louis hospital's operating room, pushing on his heart to make it pump again, though a bullet had torn through his flesh, collarbone and lung. His pulse had faded to nothing. She needed to get his heart beating.  She couldn't let the bullet win.  Bullets are Punch's enemy. They threaten everything the 44-year-old trauma surgeon cherishes: her patients' lives, her community, even her family. So, just as she did two years ago with Taylor, Punch has made it her life's mission to stem the bleeding and the damage bullets cause in so many of her patients.  In the ORs at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Punch treats gunshot victims, removing bullets that studies show can poison bodies with lead and trigger depression. And in her violence-wracked community, she teaches people how to use tourniquets to stop bleeding, creating a legion of helpers while building trust between doctors and community members.  Punch feels a calling to St. Louis, which has the nation's highest murder rate among big cities. At least a dozen children were shot to death there this summer alone, including a 7-year-old boy who was playing in his backyard. Punch believes all she's learned in life has prepared her for right now — a time when gun violence kills an average of 100 Americans a day and mass shootings are all too common.  To her, the battle is personal, in more ways than one.  Besides being a surgeon, she's a multiracial single mom living in Ferguson, Mo., just over a mile from where Michael Brown Jr., a black teenager, was shot and killed by a white police officer five years ago.  She has a son the same age as the little boy killed in the backyard in August. And, she says, "I hear the gunshots echoing through my two-acre backyard all the time."  In September, Punch brought her message to Washington, D.C., testifying before the House Ways and Means Oversight subcommittee on gun violence. Wearing a jacket and tie, she faced lawmakers to share the story of Shannon Hibler.  The 23-year-old was brought to Punch's hospital last summer; he'd been shot seven times. While the nurses gave Hibler blood, Punch said, she cut his chest open, trying to force life back into his body — to no avail.  "I watched his wife sink, as the flood waters of vulnerability and risk came into her eyes, thinking about the life of her and her child and how they would live without him," Punch told the assembled federal lawmakers in September. "I watched his father rage. And I heard his mother wail."  Punch placed the black-and-yellow, blood-splattered Adidas sneakers she'd worn the day of the shooting on the table before her in the hearing room.  "I can't wash these stains out," she told lawmakers.  The trauma surgeon was adamant: Violence is a true medical problem doctors must treat in both the operating room and the community. Until they do that, she said, violence victims will continue to be vectors who spread violence.  "The disease that bullets bring does not yet have a name," she told the members of Congress. "It's like an infection, because it affects more than just the flesh it pierces. It infects the entire family, the entire community. Even our country."  But healing also can be contagious — spreading among victims, families and physicians themselves.  Punch, who regularly visits the neighborhoods where her patients live, attended an event last year for Saint Louis Story Stitchers, an artist and youth collective working to prevent gun violence. She remembers spotting a volunteer she knew — Antwan Pope, who'd been shot some years earlier, but had found renewed purpose, helping young people.  Punch told Pope about Hibler's case, and learned Hibler was Pope's cousin.  Hibler's dad was at the community event, too, and he handed Punch a lapel pin with his son's picture.  She wore it on her white coat for months.  Punch was born in Washington, D.C., the only child of a father from Trinidad and a white Midwestern mother; they separated six months after her birth.  Until she was seven, Punch moved every year with her mom. They eventually settled with Punch's grandmother in the tiny town of Wellsville, Ohio, a close-knit but segregated community.  Classmates bullied her for being different, Punch recalls.  "I was different in every way because I wasn't black; I wasn't white," says Punch, who later came out as gay.  From the time Punch was 9 years old, she took $2 piano lessons from Elizabeth Carter. The local music teacher had transformed former drug dens into places with music lessons, free clothes and meals, and put all the kids who sought her help to work. Punch's assignment was serving food.  That lesson guided her life as a child, and when Punch moved on to Yale University, the University of Connecticut's medical school, then the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, where poverty and trauma scarred the lives of many of her patients.  Punch spent her early career in the shock trauma center in Baltimore, throwing everything she had into saving others.  After marrying a woman she'd met as a medical intern, Punch became pregnant with twins at 35.  The next few years were marked by highs and lows in her personal life and the unrelenting stress of dealing with the aftermath of violence at work.  She miscarried the twins at five months. No one could tell her why.  Five months later, she became pregnant again, this time giving birth to a healthy boy, Sollal Braxton Punch. But not long later, she and her wife separated. Now she found herself as a single parent as the pressures of her job mounted.  One morning, three shooting victims arrived at the trauma center, quickly followed by a car crash victim who was pregnant. Punch's nanny texted her, saying Sollal had a fever of 102.3.  "I realized, 'I can't do this anymore,' " Punch says. " 'I just can't.' "  So, she took a break from trauma for more than two years, focusing on general surgery at Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas.  Then, in 2015, a former colleague contacted her about a job as a trauma surgeon and educator at Washington University in St. Louis.  She feared going back to another troubled city. Michael Brown had been killed in Ferguson, a little more than a year earlier, triggering unrest and riots in that city just outside St. Louis.  Despite the city's well-known history of violence, she flew to St. Louis for interviews, then rode around Ferguson with Dr. Isaiah Turnbull, an assistant professor. He pointed out the spot on Canfield Drive where Brown's body had lain in the road for more than four hours.  "It was almost like seeing Ground Zero," Punch says. "This is where it all went down. And it went down because of deep structural realities that caused the experience of black and brown people in north St. Louis to be fundamentally different. I went from not wanting to go, to wanting to be right in the middle of it."  And now she is.  On a recent hot summer evening, 20 people — some black, some white — gathered around Punch. A few feet away, another doctor, a trauma nurse and a medical student stood near tables stacked with sections of "pool noodles," the long foam cylinders kids play with in swimming pools. These noodles happened to be about the width of a human arm.  Punch explained to the class that a person can bleed to death in a minute, but an ambulance can take 15 minutes to arrive.  "If you can stop the bleed, you can save a life," she said. "Time is life and minutes matter."  Participants practiced packing wounds by pressing gauze into holes in the pool noodles. They tightened tourniquets — first on the foam cylinders, then on each other.  Punch knows one of the doctors who created these Stop the Bleed trainings after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. She realized the same trainings could save lives after street shootings, too.  Since March 2018, she and her team have trained more than 7,000 community members in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Many come to a rented St. Louis space Punch has dubbed "The T" (for trauma, tourniquet and time), but her team has also held classes in schools, a juvenile detention center and a firing range.  "It's far more than teaching people what to do," Punch says. "They learn: 'I am not simply a victim or a perpetrator or an observer; I'm a helper. I have the capacity to help.' "  Two years ago, Sidney Taylor was shot outside his brother's comedy club in North St. Louis County while trying to help a friend who was drunk. When Taylor, a father for four, arrived at Punch's hospital, profuse bleeding had left his blood pressure dangerously low.  Taylor nearly died on the operating table, but Punch and her team pulled him back.  After 10 days in intensive care, the longtime wrestling coach was still in physical and mental agony.  That's the point when many patients slip back to their communities unhealed. But Taylor, now 47, showed up in Punch's clinic a month after he had been shot, and they bonded during a 25-minute visit. Punch described to him how her team had removed part of his lung and inserted a breathing tube.  "Wow," he told her. "I have another chance at life."  Punch mulled a thought, then asked, "Would you ever want to share your story?"  Punch recruited Taylor's hospital caregivers to create a video of their memories of saving him. When the taping finished, Taylor hugged each one.  Punch uses the video during talks, sometimes inviting Taylor to join her. Giving back to the community in that way has saved him a second time, he says.  After getting shot, "I could've basically turned to the dark side and done straight revenge," Taylor says. "But I didn't because of her."  Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit, editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation. KHN is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.


sputnik--2019-10-14--British Surgeon Warns About Teens Seeking Botox-Induced ‘Ivanka Look’, Calls For Gov't Action

A cosmetic surgeon Dr Dirk Kremer from London has called upon British MPs to make it illegal for underage children to have cosmetic fillers and Botox injections in a bid to get the popular “rich-girl face” look and resemble famous billionaire influencers such as Kylie Jenner or Ivanka Trump, according to The Times.  Dr Kremer, who works at a Harley Street aesthetics clinic in London, petitioned the British Parliament last week calling to forbid young people from getting face injections, as he says that an increasing number of underage people were coming to his clinic to get a “certain look, which gets more ‘likes’ and more followers”.  Kremer believes that social media is to blame for such an obsession with “rich-girl face” which includes chiseled jaw, plump lips and raised eyebrows, with many people coming to his clinic – often as young as 15 years old – citing the US president's daughter Ivanka Trump or American model Kylie Jenner as an example for their desired looks.  While some cosmetic surgeons often ask for the consent of a parent or legal guardian if under-18 teens are coming to them, this is not officially required by law, as the industry remains highly unregulated and open to amateurs, the doctor warns.  With some practitioners now offering people treatments after taking a short course and ordering fillers from China, this can potentially lead to complications, such as skin necrosis, strokes and even vision loss.


theguardianuk--2019-10-10--Heart surgeon and author reveals how he once set fire to patient

It was a routine heart operation which was all going smoothly until one thing led to another and the surgeon set fire to his patient.  The alarming but entertaining story of how a patient was flambéed on the operating table was told at Cheltenham literature festival by the leading heart surgeon and Guardian crossword setter, Samer Nashef.  Nashef, a cardiac surgeon at Royal Papworth hospital in Cambridge, said the operation had been a perfectly straightforward coronary bypass and they were just about to close the patient’s chest when the aorta dissected.  That is “one of the worst things; it basically transforms a straight operation into a very long and dangerous and tedious one”.  Because you cannot put the patient on the heart-lung machine, you need quick access to another artery, said Nashef. The groin is the best place but you have to prepare and clean the area.  “In a hurry, with an assistant pushing really, really hard on the aorta to reduce the massive blood loss, we threw some prep solution on to the groin and then cut the skin to find the artery.”  As there was some blood, Nashef used an electric device to cauterise it – a medical technique which involves burning to mitigate bleeding.  “Unfortunately the prep solution hadn’t dried. The flames reached the operating light. We managed to put them out using the drapes,”he said.  “To cut a long story short, the patient did absolutely fine but, he was an 80-year-old man, he was rather bemused to find he’d had a full Brazilian.”  The surgeon said he was congratulating himself on an amazing save but was nevertheless summoned to management and told what had happened was an NHS “never event”. Never events, such as taking out the wrong kidney, are – as the name suggests – events that should never happen.  The never event in this case referred to not burning or scalding patients, although Nashef argued the rule did not apply because the guidelines say it applies to kettles. There was no kettle involved in his operating room, he insisted.  Nashef, better known to Guardian crossword solvers as Philistine, was talking about his book, The Angina Monologues, sharing a stage at Cheltenham with fellow cardiac surgeon Stephen Westaby, author of The Knife’s Edge.  The discussion touched on how far along the psychopathic spectrum, how fearless and inhibited, surgeons should be.  Nashef said the quality was more important in surgeons practising in the early days of heart surgery when it was only carried out as a last resort. “The surgeons who took the chance to do that had to have supreme self-confidence in themselves.  “Now, we do not need to be so psychopathic. A good heart operation now should be as boring as possible, where nothing unexpected happens, where everything goes according to plan.”  The session was interrupted for five minutes when a man in the audience appeared to faint, even before Nashef’s fire-fighting story. Fortunately there were doctors – or rather surgeons – in the house, both of whom went down from the stage and diagnosed him as fine.


themoscowtimes--2019-08-23--Arkhangelsk Doctors Werent Warned About Radiation Surgeon Confirms in First Public Account

Arkhangelsk Doctors Weren’t Warned About Radiation, Surgeon Confirms in First Public Account

Update: The Kremlin confirmed in a conference call with journalists Monday that it had seen this report citing Igor Semin's post.  “Of course, we have seen the report about this doctor’s statement,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was cited as saying by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.  “I am certain that the relevant authorities, which provide first-hand information about the situation, know about it and will check all the facts,” he added.  In a previously unreported social media post, a Russian doctor has publicly confirmed that his colleagues were forced to treat radiation victims after a deadly nuclear explosion earlier this month without basic equipment or knowledge of the accident.  A blast at a military base in northern Russia killed seven people and injured six on Aug. 8, with three of the victims being taken to the Arkhangelsk Regional Clinical Hospital. First responders at the hospital were not warned that they would be dealing with patients exposed to radiation, The Moscow Times reported last Friday, citing five hospital sources who asked to remain anonymous. Since then, other media outlets, including Novaya Gazeta and BBC Russia, have provided similar accounts of the incident based on anonymous sources.


thetelegraph--2019-05-08--Women are better doctors than men because they have better communication skills surgeon says

Women are better doctors than men because they have better communication skills, surgeon says

Women are better at being doctors than men because they are less competitive and better communicators, an eminent British neurosurgeon has said.  Dr Henry Marsh, a pioneering surgeon and author, said male doctors were too “driven by testosterone” to be good at teamwork.  Speaking at the Stratford-upon-Avon Literary festival, he said that earlier in his career he had believed women would not fare as well as men in the medical profession.  But he said a long career in surgery had shifted his position.  Dr Marsh, aged 69, said: "I was a bit chauvinistic about it 20 years ago, when I started having women trainees.  "In the sense that, I thought 'well they're just too nice', because it's such a horrible job in many ways.  "It's so distressing and you have to be a bit ruthless.


tass--2019-10-01--Moscow oncologists threaten to quit unless their demands are met

MOSCOW, October 1. /TASS/. The head of Russia’s leading cancer clinic, the Blokhin Cancer Research Center, Ivan Stilidi has condemned an ultimatum set by a group of oncologists to quit unless their demand on sacking the new director of a child oncology branch was met.  In his interview with the portal "The Future of Russia. National Projects", operated by TASS, Stilidi said: "This is blatant speculation, they actually threaten with their ultimatum that children will be left without medical care. We already have an agreement with children's oncology centers in Moscow and St. Petersburg - not a single child with a serious illness will be left without medical assistance."  On Monday, 26 oncologists posted a video message demanding the resignation of Svetlana Varfolomeeva, the new director of the Research Institute for Child Oncology and Hematology at the Blokhin Cancer Research Center.  According to Stilidi, the doctors’ anger was apparently triggered by the new director’s decision to tighten discipline at the center as well as putting a spotlight on the doctors who are the founders of a charity fund.  The director has vowed to carry out checks to figure out whether there is a conflict of interests between the institute’s oncologists working at a charity fund. "The tensions were fueled by the fact that she had drawn attention to the staff members, who founded a charity fund. I’m not a lawyer to give a legal evaluation to the actions of these staff members, but definitely there can be a conflict of interests here because doctors cannot collect funds for a treatment they prescribe. Checks need to be conducted whether these steps are legal," Stilidi stressed.  One of initiators of this video message was deputy director for scientific and medical work at the Research Institute for Child Oncology and Hematology Georgy Mentkevich, who is in charge of bone marrow transplant for children diagnosed with cancer. Mentkevich was sacked by the new leadership several days earlier and was also reprimanded for his "rude behavior," Stilidi noted.  In their video posted on Youtube, the doctors also demanded pay transparency and an audit of new buildings at the clinic following delays in putting them in operation. The oncologists said they decided to quit because the center’s new leadership had prevented them from fulfilling their duties. The doctors claimed that hospital wards were overcrowded and the construction of new buildings has been dragged on for 20 years.


theguardianuk--2019-07-01--NHS oncologists are being offered shares in private hospitals This must stop

NHS oncologists are being offered shares in private hospitals. This must stop

If you knew your medical consultant could make a profit from the cancer treatment he or she recommended for you, would you still feel confident it was the right treatment for you? For the vast majority of cancer patients in the UK this question never arises. The [NHS](https://www.theguardian.com/society/nhs) insulates patients from the conflict of interest that can skew clinical decision-making in for-profit healthcare systems.  In the US there are copious opportunities for clinicians to make money from prescribing drugs, surgery or diagnostic tests which can put patients at risk of harm from unnecessary interventions, while also wasting huge amounts of public money when the treatment is covered by Medicare. In order to combat this, the federal government has put in place [tough rules to penalise](https://oig.hhs.gov/compliance/physician-education/01laws.asp) any hospital or clinician that engages in fraudulent activity. Despite this, healthcare fraud in the US is now estimated to [cost up to a staggering $272bn](https://www.economist.com/united-states/2014/05/31/the-272-billion- swindle) a year.  But the UK healthcare system is not completely insulated from this threat. NHS England estimates that only [half of its consultants do private work](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/sep/20/nhs-plans-to-make- senior-doctors-reveal-outside-earnings). Private medical consultations are remunerated on a fee-for-service basis – they receive a fee for every operation or consultation. The most extreme example of what this can lead to may be the case of the breast cancer surgeon Ian Paterson who carried out [unnecessary private operations on 750 patients](https://www.theguardian.com /uk-news/2017/sep/13/victims-of-rogue-breast-surgeon-ian-paterson-to-be- compensated-from-37m-fund), in many cases telling them they had cancer when they didn’t. Paterson made a substantial amount of money out of his actions and was sent to prison.  But in addition to receiving a fee for carrying out each private healthcare intervention [our research shows](https://chpi.org.uk/papers/reports/pounds- for-patients-how-the-private-hospital-sector-uses-financial-incentives-to-win- the-business-of-medical-consultants) there are now more than 600 mainly NHS consultants who also own shares or equipment in private hospitals and who stand to benefit personally from the financial performance of the hospital where they treat their patients. It should be stressed that this is a very small proportion of the total number of NHS consultants. However, the ownership of shares and equipment in the private hospitals and clinics is most prevalent among cancer consultants (oncologists). This is a special concern since the patients who are most likely to try, and be willing to pay for any treatment that could save or prolong their lives are at greatest risk of being exploited, with an estimated one in 16 oncologists now having a financial interest in a private hospital where they treat patients.  To comprehend why this is happening, it is necessary to understand the fundamentals of the private hospital business model. The only way for a private hospital to make money is by having patients referred to it for private treatment by a consultant. As a result, private hospitals, particularly in London and Manchester, are in [“fierce competition”](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5584293840f0b615b3000009/HCA_response_to_ITC.pdf) with one another to win the loyalty of consultants, to the point where in 2014 the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found a widespread culture of what could be termed [“kick back” payments](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5329dc0c40f0b60a730000c3/provisional_findings_.pdf) whereby consultants were rewarded financially according to how many patients they referred to a hospital. The higher the number of patient referrals in any one year the bigger the reward. This practice was prohibited, though not to protect patient safety, but because it distorted competition. But the CMA still permitted share ownership in private hospitals so long as it did not exceed a [5% equity stake](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/453465/Private_Healthcare_Market_Investigation_Order_2014.pdf) and was fully declared.  There are two reasons why cancer consultants are being specially targeted in this way. First, private cancer care in London is now the [single biggest earner for the private hospital sector](https://www.ft.com/content/befcda6c- 2b91-11e9-a5ab-ff8ef2b976c7), outstripping orthopaedics and cosmetic surgery for the first time. Millions of pounds of investment have been poured into this market by international investors who see the declining [NHS performance in cancer treatment](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/08/nhs- cancer-treatment-wait-statistics-2018-standards) as an opportunity to meet a demand from middle-class patients who are not prepared to wait and are willing to pay. The second reason why hospitals are targeting cancer consultants is that there is a finite number of them in the UK. They need to pull them towards private practice. One of the ways of gaining the commitment of an NHS cancer consultant to undertake private work is for a private hospital to offer them a share of the profits made out of their services, on top of fees they will receive for treating patients.  This approach has been adopted most successfully in the UK by the US healthcare giant HCA Healthcare, which now has profit-sharing arrangements with NHS cancer consultants, especially in London and Manchester. In an astute business move HCA has locked its for-profit fee-for-service model into the heart of the UK’s leading cancer hospitals at [University College London Hospitals](https://www.hcahealthcare.co.uk/facilities/hca-uk-at-university- college-hospital), [Guy’s and St Thomas’](http://www.londonbridgehospital.com/LBH/about-us/private-care-at- guys/) and [the Christie in Manchester](https://www.hcahealthcare.co.uk/facilities/the-christie-private- care/). The private cancer units HCA has set up in these hospital trusts are jointly owned with NHS consultants, some of whom are employed by the trusts. The [trusts](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/555de2e4ed915d7ae2000037/HCA.pdf) receive [rental income from HCA](https://www.uclh.nhs.uk/aboutus/wwd/Annual%20reviews%20plans%20and%20reports%20archive/Annual%20Report%20and%20Accounts%202017-18.pdf) for using their facilities, or in the case of the Christie, a share in the profits generated.  The NHS consultants at the Christie with shares in their trust’s private patient unit will have shared a dividend pot between them of [over £2m between 2013 and 2017](https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/OC342754/filing- history). A bonus which is on top of their NHS salary and the fees they will have received for treating patients at the private patient unit. The profits available to HCA Healthcare over the [same period were £25m](https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/OC355132/filing-history). Outpatient visits to the private patient unit increased by 30% during this period, suggesting that more patients were going private either due to increased demand or difficulties in accessing NHS services.  This represents a new form of privatisation of the NHS, from the inside. The extent of the collaboration between HCA Healthcare and NHS trusts is almost impossible for members of the public to find out about. And, not only do the consultants involved have a financial incentive to provide unnecessary treatment, they could also have an incentive to encourage patients to go private rather than remain in the NHS.  Of course, for a doctor to behave in this way would be a significant breach of [professional ethics](https://www.gmc-uk.org/ethical-guidance/ethical- guidance-for-doctors/good-medical-practice) and there is no suggestion that this is occurring in these cases. However, in order to remove the risk of such financial incentives operating against the best interests of patients, a much tougher regulatory regime needs to be introduced. Clinicians should be barred outright from owning shares and equipment in the private hospitals where they treat patients not only to protect the integrity of the health service but also to protect patient safety.  With the NHS clearly [in the sights of the US healthcare lobby](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/02/us-wants-access-to- nhs-in-post-brexit-deal-ambassador-to-uk-says), there is an urgent need to put in place a regulatory regime to protect patients from the worst aspects of the profit-driven model of healthcare, which wastes huge amounts of public money and harms patients.  • David Rowland is the director of the Centre for [Health](https://www.theguardian.com/society/health) and the Public Interest (CHPI)


breitbart--2019-12-27--Yale Psychiatrist Claims Pelosi Can Subject Trump to 'Involuntary' Mental Health Evaluation

Yale Medicine Professor of Psychiatry Bandy X. Lee claims that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has the “right to have [Trump] submit to an involuntary evaluation.”  Professor Lee, of the Yale University School of Medicine, also serves as president of the World Mental Health Coalition. She has been a longstanding and outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, providing “translations” of his communications on her Twitter feed.  Lee was also an editor on The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President, and is part of a movement demanding that the Judiciary Committee bring a panel of mental health experts to join impeachment proceedings.  “As a coworker, she has the right to have him submit to an involuntary evaluation, but she has not,” Lee told Salon. “Anyone can call 911 to report someone who seems dangerous, and family members are the most typical ones to do so. But so can coworkers, and even passersby on the street.”  “The law dictates who can determine right to treatment, or civil commitment, and in all 50 U.S. states this includes a psychiatrist,” she continued. “The advantage of a coworker starting this process is that a court can mandate a mental capacity evaluation before the dangerous person returns to work.”  Lee also believes that those surrounding Trump may be suffering from a “shared psychosis.” She said that “the severity by which others are affected is what induces me to believe that Trump is sometimes truly paranoid and delusional rather than merely lying.”  “We have created one of the most dangerous periods by first delaying impeachment and allowing his false sense of impunity to swell and then proceeding,” Lee warned in the interview. “Impeachment is much needed as ‘limit setting,’ and the House speaker has done well to set limits on the Senate by delaying the articles.”  Still, Lee said the country “simply cannot ignore the dangers” of a President she described as “highly unwell,” and she is “beginning to believe that a mental health hold, which we have tried to avoid, will become inevitable.”


cnsnews--2019-09-17--John Hopkins Psychiatrist Gender Confusions Are Mostly Driven by Psychological and Psychosocial Pr

John Hopkins Psychiatrist: ‘Gender Confusions Are Mostly Driven by Psychological and Psychosocial Problems’

Dr. Paul R. McHugh, the Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University and former psychiatrist–in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital, who has studied transgendered people for 40 years, believes that patients suffering gender dysphoria need psychological care – not gender reassignment treatment.  “I think their mental problems, often depression, discouragement are the things that need treatment,” Dr. McHugh, who has argued that it is a scientific fact that “transgendered men do not become women, nor do transgendered women become men,” told The College Fix in an interview published Tuesday:  Because their problems are psychological, many people who become transgender find that they no less troubled after the change, he says:  “It would explain why many of the people who go on to have treatment of their body discover they are just as depressed, discouraged and live just as problematic lives as they did before because they did not address the primary problem.”  Also, since so little is known about the effects of the hormone treatments, medical professionals providing them are, basically, just experimenting on their transgender patients, McHugh tells The Fix.  Dr. McHugh predicts that, once people realize the harm it’s doing, transgender treatment will be viewed with regret, much like the eugenics movement.


dailyheraldchicago--2019-07-22--States first high school veterinary science program to get bigger this fall

State's first high school veterinary science program to get bigger this fall

A regional veterinary science program at Central High School near Burlington -- the first of its kind in the state -- will see a surge in enrollment this fall as more Kane County high school districts join.  Burlington-based Central Unit District 301 launched the state's first comprehensive veterinary science program at the high school level last school year to help address a statewide shortage of veterinary assistants. It is being offered as part of a regional career pathways cooperative -- the Northern Kane County Regional Vocational System -- to member districts: District 301; Elgin Area School District U-46; Algonquin-based Community Unit District 300; and St. Charles Unit District 303. Through the partnership, students from these districts can take courses not offered at their home schools.  In the first year, 112 students from District 301 and U-46 completed the introduction to agriculture and animal science course. This fall, 57 students from that first batch will begin externships at Fox Valley-area veterinary clinics, hospitals and doggy day care centers to gain hands-on experience.  A new group of 110 sophomores from U-46 and District 301 also will be enrolling this fall, along with five students from District 300 who will be taking the introductory and second-year veterinary courses concurrently, said Esther Mongan, District 301 assistant superintendent.  "It's pretty exciting for our students," said Mongan, adding students who are returning for the second year are "really committed."  Eventually, students from St. Charles Unit District 303 are expected to join the veterinary program, officials said.  There is growing interest in the program at U-46, said Kinasha Brown, district director of educational pathways.  "Students believe that the program is academically rigorous," said Brown, adding that students surveyed during the program's first year gave high marks to District 301's veterinary lab facilities and teachers.  District 301 worked with the Illinois State Board of Education to create its veterinary science curriculum and built a state-of-the-art lab at Central.  The three-year program, starting in sophomore year, covers a range of topics, including personal safety and animal handling, animal industry issues, species care and management, microbiology, biosecurity, anatomy and body systems, reproduction and genetics, pharmacology, hospital, lab and surgical prep procedures, laws and ethics, and even office management. Students also must complete 100 hours of nonpaid externship experience starting second semester of junior year with local veterinary clinics, animal shelters or hospitals before they can be certified as veterinary assistants.  "We have partnered with 19 sites throughout the northern Kane County region to allow our students to complete this experience," Brown said.  District 301's program meets entry-level competency standards and guidelines established by the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America. After completing it, students can take the national test to become an approved veterinary assistant and earn college credit allowing them to graduate a year earlier.  District 301 also has a partnership with Fox College in Tinley Park guaranteeing program graduates admission into an 18-month veterinary technology program.  "Every student who comes in through this regional pathway program is awarded a $2,500 scholarship," Brown said.  Other regional career pathway programs offered through the vocational system are precision manufacturing and health care science currently housed at U-46, and welding housed at U-46 and District 300 high schools.  District 301 officials expect to add more pathway programs in coming years, including plant and animal sciences.  "Down the road, we're going to have opportunities for various health occupations pathways and also cyber security," said Todd Stirn, District 301 superintendent. "We're really looking to provide our students with career pathways that can lead to certification that's both regionally and nationally recognized so that it's portable ... and provide a pathway to gainful employment."  U-46 is developing two new tracks in the health care science field -- medical assistance and patient care technician -- that students could register for in the 2020-21 school year with courses beginning the following school year. Brown expects the program will be a huge draw.  "We would be the only district in the region to house such a program," she added.  Brown said among the benefits of taking a regional approach to developing career pathways is increasing student access to high-quality career and technical education programs and sharing financial resources to minimize districts' costs for program implementation. These pathways also are aligned to federal and state initiatives to increase college and career readiness, she added.  "We are truly a best practice model," Brown said. "We are providing a framework. It's a win not only for our district but for the students as well because when you can do this type of systemic development and create access ... you really start to diminish opportunity gaps."


21stcenturywire--2019-11-27--65 Doctors Draft Open Letter Warning British Authorities Assange May Die in Detention

Time is running out for Julian Assange.  This week, 65 doctors and medical professionals, led by Australian clinical psychologist Lissa Johnson, have written an open letter to the British Home Secretary, Priti Patel, to inform British authorities that the health of Julian Assange is at a critical sage now. The group has asked that Assange be moved from supermax Belmarsh Prison and into a university teaching hospital where he can receive proper multidisciplinary medical care, otherwise, there is a very real risk that he may die in custody. The 48-year-old Assange is still fighting US extradition for charges under the 1917 Espionage Act with 175 years in a US prison.  UKC News hosts Patrick Henningsen and Mike Robinson present the issue and give the argument on behalf of the WikiLeaks founder. Watch:  HELP SUPPORT THIS INDEPENDENT MEDIA PLATFORM – BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV


clashdaily--2019-11-27--Bioethicist Wants To ‘Morally Cleanse’ The Medical Profession From ‘Freedom Of Conscience’

Have you asked yourself what would happen if Medicine follows the same ideological trendlines that Humanities like ‘Women’s Studies’ have followed? That shift is beginning already.  If you actively screen out the ‘wrong’ political thinking at the intake side, it won’t take long before you can ideologically ‘capture’ the entire medical profession with an activist view.  Once that happens, the Left will obviously use the air of authority that a medical consensus has to offer to drive public policy.  They are doing this in an effort to block medical professionals who object to such things as, say, performing an abortion participating in Canada’s euthanasia program, participating in a pre-teen’s gender reassignment process, or whatever the Left’s Next Big Social Experiment might happen to be. Ironically, they are doing this in the name of ‘bio-ethics’.  Trending: WATCH: Viral Video Shows Teen Who Doesn’t Know How To Use A Can Opener The ongoing moral cleansing of the medical professions — currently waged in the media and bioethics movement’s policy offensive against “medical conscience” — may soon expand to preventing unwoke would-be doctors, nurses, and pharmacists from obtaining professional educations. Specifically, the Canadian bioethicist Udu Schuklenk — who generally mouths the mainstream utilitarianish views of the mainstream bioethics movement — has explicitly advocated barring students with unwanted sanctity-of-life ethics from admission into medical school. From the Global News story: For Schuklenk, a possible solution to prevent such debates [over euthanasia, abortion, transgender interventions, etc..] from cropping up at all would be to screen out would-be doctors who say they would object to providing health care on conscience grounds before they even get to medical school. This could be done through a survey or asking medical school applicants outright if they foresee themselves objecting to providing certain types of health care. “The problems that we are having now that lead to the kinds of legislation they are considering now in Alberta is caused by these sorts of doctors who prioritize their private beliefs, ultimately, over patient well-being,” Schuklenk told Global News. “Medical schools, pharmacy schools should go out of their way to basically eliminate applicants who they know already will not provide these services.” Anecdotally, I can tell you from speaking to pro-life want-to-be doctors and nurses, that such culling already occurs outside of official policy.   Source: NationalReview  If this kind of a purge seems like a good idea to you, consider this:  Dr. Josef Mengele had the blessing of the Nazi state to perform his medical atrocities on unwilling patients. Freedom of conscience and diversity of thought were not permitted in that environment.  In creating an environment that screens out those who will not perform acts that run contrary to your conscience, this invites a culture of groupthink where there is less moral latitude to call out incidents of abuse, neglect, malpractice or even register a dissenting view that recognizes an ethical, moral or even legal issue that others in the profession have been blind to.  It isn’t so very long ago that Nelly Bly exposed exactly that sort of unchecked abuse of power within our ‘esteemed medical authorities’ in ‘Ten Days In A Madhouse’.  Why would we possibly want to go back to that sort of monolithic thinking?