Keeping up with the NEWS

The London Olympics kicked off in dramatic style this weekend with a stunning opening ceremony. I've been hooked to the TV all weekend - hopefully some gold medals to come for Team GB! Apparently the GMC has granted temporary GMC registration for 849 doctors from 141 countries to help support the athletes. France has sent the most doctors (58 to support their 333 athletes). Compare this to the 18 doctors who are going to be supporting Britain's 542 athletes! We must be confident! It was good to see the NHS represented in the opening ceremony - the trampoline hospital beds for the kids was a fantastic idea.

Tomorrow is my last day as an FY1 doctor and I'm about to start at a new hospital at the dizzying new heights of FY2 (foundation doctor two). It's been a good year, ups and downs but overall enjoyable. Not long now until the serious matters of application to specialty training come into the fold. I'll probably put that off until AFTER the marathon (running 5 times a week and working full time doesn't leave much time for anything else!).

New Maggies Centre at Gartnavel, Glasgow

 <----This is the new Maggie's Centre which has been shortlisted for the Royal Institute of Architects' Stirling Prize. I visited the Maggie's centre in Dundee which I'd probably describe as a resource or meeting place for patients with cancer, offering a tranquil and relaxing environment away from the miserable hospital wards which can be depressing places to spend time, particularly I'd imagine for patients visiting regularly for chemo/radiotherapy. I think that these buildings are fantastic and looking at the photos of this new centre in the Glasgow's west end I think it will be equally successful. 

An article which I read in the BMJ News caught my attention this week. This was the proposal that a national early warning prediction score is adopted which is the same in all NHS hospitals. When I learnt about improving patient safety as a fifth year medical student, much emphasis was placed on the importance of reducing variation to improve patient safety. Currently in the Victoria Infirmary we use a "SEWS" (systemic early warning score) but in other parts of Scotland a "NEWS" (national early warning score) is being introduced. I think that this is a great idea. There must be more areas where we can reduce variations in our hospitals, such as with national agreements on evidence based best practice. With Wednesday being the big 'change-over' day, many doctors will move to new hospitals in new cities and health boards. If everything was standardised, less mistakes would be made and no doubt patients would benefit. I am a big believer in reducing variation to improve patient safety in our hospitals.