By: Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor, The Independent
11 December 2008

Family doctors are committing up to 600 errors a day, mainly in diagnosis and treatment, but are among the worst staff at reporting them, an NHS watchdog says today.

Family doctors are committing up to 600 errors a day, mainly in diagnosis and treatment, but are among the worst staff at reporting them, an NHS watchdog says today.

Many errors are minor, but up to one in five cause harm to patients and failure to report them means they are more likely to be repeated, the Healthcare Commission says.

By: Harriet Shawcross, PA, The Independent
Tuesday, 28 October 2008

A former head of the Islamic Medical Association sent a homophobic letter to a magazine for GPs, saying gay people needed the “stick of law to put them on the right path”, the General Medical Council heard today.

Dr Muhammad Siddiq was working as a GP at the Walsall Teaching Primary Care Trust when he wrote the letter to Pulse in July last year.

A GMC fitness to practise panel, in Manchester, heard Dr Siddiq’s letter read: “There is punishment and fine if you throw rubbish or filth on the streets, the gays are worse than the ordinary careless citizen, they are causing the spread of illness and they are the root cause of many sexually-transmitted diseases.

“They need neither sympathy nor help, what they need is the stick of law to put them on the right path.”

BMJ 2008, 16 February
News:by Brad Spurgeon

• Seven doctors and pharmacists went on trial in France last week over the death of at least 110 people who became infected with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after being given tainted human growth hormone when they were children.
• The United States, Britain, and other countries halted the distribution of growth hormone in 1985, after it was discovered that three people had died after being given the product.
• Growth hormone at that time was extracted from pituitary glands removed from corpses. The cause of some subsequent deaths was Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
• Doctors in France, however, continued to use the hormone for several years, treating thousands of children, before turning to a synthetic substitute in 1988

One of the quotes of the week in August 2007 was:
“Getting it wrong, very wrong, is part of the process.”

This could be about anything medical basically, so if you want to find out what this author was on about, you have to go and look for yourself, as I couldn’t find it that quickly. BMJ 11.08.07, volume 335, in Letters.

BMJ 2007;335:618 (22 September).

Doping in sport—a warning from history.

East German athletes who were doped to win gold medals in 1976 Olympics now struggle with chronic health problems.

Sport is tough, mean, and uncompromising.

The German Democratic Republic looked coldly at what was required and did it. Potential medal winners were selected at an early age for sports school, trained, and prepared systematically.

Athletes were given oral anabolic steroids until the time of competition but were injected with testosterone during competition as it was then undetectable.

It is the involuntary and systematic abuse of underage athletes that hits hardest. These athletes, recruited from as young as 10 years old, did not know what medication they were taking and were discouraged from asking.

The sports doctors had signed a confidentiality agreement, monitored by the East German secret police, the Stasi. They made no protest, and 70 of them were later convicted of illegal doping.

We were left wondering where those doctors are now and how they feel about their role.

Perhaps it is a little unfair to judge history by current standards. But doping remains a part of sport.

William Sellar makes it easier for us to say sorry

BMJ Career Focus 2007;335:95-96 15 September 2007

Doctors are often thought of as being incapable of apologising. On occasions when we are conscious of the need to apologise, we may feel embarrassed out of fear of losing face or worry that admitting to a mistake may lead to recrimination.

Relationships with patients are built on trust. An error, misjudgment, or inappropriate comment can damage relationships. An apology may be appropriate to repair that damage. This also applies when we upset our colleagues or families. A timely apology to a patient may prevent hurt escalating into a complaint or damaging a caring relationship.

An apology to a colleague or family member may avoid loss of respect, a soured relationship, or the break-up of a friendship.

A recent example of a good apology was that placed in the press by Tesco. Having unwittingly sold contaminated petrol, which damaged some car engines, Tesco published a clear apology, admitting the error, expressing regret, explaining the problem, and promising to pay for repairs needed as a result of the contaminated petrol. If a major company recognises the need for and benefits of an apology, so should doctors as we too are providers in a service industry. The apology by Tesco illustrates several components of a good apology.

Components of a good apology:

1. Expressing regret—I am sorry
2. Accepting responsibility—I was wrong
3. Making restitution—What can I do to make it right?
4. Genuinely repenting—I’ll try not to do that again
5. Requesting forgiveness—Will you please forgive me?

Some doctors believe that the less said after a mistake, the better. They fear an apology may be construed as an admission of guilt and fuel litigation. However, saying nothing can create the impression of not caring. A genuine apology can help patients understand we are human and make errors.

As Chapman and Thomas note, “It is about the provider showing respect, empathy, and a commitment to patient satisfaction; and about those receiving the apology having the grace to see the provider as human and fallible—and worthy of forgiveness.”

If you want to read the whole article WHY DOCTORS CAN’T SAY SORRY, JUST CLICK HERE.

To end with some advise from the master of the piano, Mr Elton John:
 

SORRY SEEMS TO BE THE HARDEST WORDS.

And he knew that already, thirty odd years ago guys, so please take note.