Focus on Japan

Japan was struck this week by a devastating earthquake which measured 9.0 on the richter scale. The compounded effects of the earthquake, a tsunami and damage to nuclear power stations has meant that Japan faces the worst catastrophe since World War II. I heard that doctors from the UK were flying out to offer assistance in the on-going relief effort and I started wondering. Who are these doctors? How are they contacted? Do they just drop all of their clinical workload at short notice and shoot off to the far-east, or are they already contracted to help wherever they are required? I wondered whether there is something I can do in future to help with scenarios like these. Once I have the experience I need, I hope that one day I'll be able to help those in desperate need in parts of the world. I feel that in the role of the doctor, there is a duty to help out our neighbours, even if they are on the other side of the world.

For the past few weeks I've been watching the BBC Three programme "Junior Doctors: Your Life in Their Hands". It's half-way through the series now and I have to admit that it's been quite compelling viewing. It's on BBC Three at 9pm on Tuesday nights. The programme follows 6 FY1/FY2 doctors in their work and home life during the first four months of their new jobs. I don't think I would have agreed to take part in the programme if I had been asked. I'm always skeptical about how the media portrays these things and I thought that the BBC would edit the programme to make it seem more drammatic than it actually is. What I've found though is that it looks like quite a realistic portrayal of life on the wards. Talking to Amy (who's an FY1 in Glasgow), she agrees. It's interesting hearing about the doctors' thoughts and attitudes towards their new jobs. Some of the FY2s offer very good advice to the FY1s and I hope that that is always the case. It's good to have role models to look to support when times are tough. Fortunately the programme hasn't put me off medicine and in fact the effect has been quite the opposite!

On a good news note, there is an article in the BMJ about Cystic Fibrosis this week which follows on quite nicely from the talk given by Dr McCormick at the paediatrics symposium earlier this week. It reports the results from a cohort study carried out between 1990 and 2007 which has found improved survival rates in patients with low respiratory function. Over the past 20 years, CF patients with FEV1 of <30% have seen an increased median survival from 1.2 years to 5.3 years. The study reflects the major improvements which have taken place in the management of CF over the past 20 years, however much more work needs to be done to look after these young patients.