After the annual leave....

I can't believe we're into March already - this year's flying in. Less than four months until the wedding now and summer's just round the corner so lots to look forward to after a great week off. Feeling re-energised and ready to go. 

Some interesting articles which I've been reading over the past week or so:

1) The BMA council is going to ballot it's members on industrial strike action for the first time in almost 40 years. This relates to the government's new offer on pensions for public sector workers which will see an increase in contributions for a lower final pension for doctors.

2) Sudden death in epilepsy: Patients with epilepsy are more likely to die pre-maturely than the rest of the population. SUDEP stands for 'sudden, unexpected, non-traumatic and non-drowning death in patients with epilepsy'. The profile of patients most likely to be affected are young age of onset, male and a longer duration of epilepsy with frequency of seizures one of the most important risk factors identified. This adds further evidence to support the need for good compliance with treatment amongst patients with epilepsy. One of the major drives in the place I work in is the medicines reconciliation process - ie. ensuring that patients admitted to hospital as an emergency have an up-to-date prescription made for their regular medications. Missing doses such as anti-epileptic treatments in this case or prescribing the wrong dose could have a potentially catastrophic impact.

3) Air pollution is associated with a higher risk of myocardial infarction within just one week of exposure to a high concentration. The associations for this are most highly linked to 'traffic' pollution. The same meta-analysis study also recognised that higher levels of air pollution are also associated with faster rate of cognitive decline. So in other words, avoiding pollution will lead to all-round health benefits, not restricted to the incidence of respiratory conditions.

4) In the BMJ careers section last week there were some interesting articles about the career progression of FY2s entering specialty training. In less than 12 months I'll be applying for specialty training so these issues are particularly relevant to me. Last year a third of UK foundation doctors did not directly enter specialty training. Reasons for the third who didn't include taking a career break, experiencing medicine abroad and just locum working. At the moment the plan is to apply for GP training and Core Medical Training but that could change over FY2 depending on how things go.

Finally, my parents are off to Grenada (my favourite place) for a holiday and I'm just a little bit jealous that I didn't get invited so I thought I'd put a picture from my elective up to help things. I'll have the last laugh when I'm in the Maldives on the honeymoon in four months time anyway!