UK response to covid-19: obfuscation, misrepresentation, and ignoring advice
Where did the UK’s covid-19 plan go wrong?1 Politics. Despite repeated assurances that it was…
Author: British Medical Journal
Managing heart failure related peripheral oedema in primary care
What you need to knowAlways consider reasons for decompensation in heart failure, as they may…
Clare Gerada: What to do with appraisal
As we wait for the next phase of the pandemic, many of us are beginning…
How can I make the most of my time shielding?
By shielding we support the NHSSethina Watson, anaesthetic registrar, North Bristol NHS Trust, says, “Anaesthetists…
NHS Test and Trace: it didn’t have to be this way
On the afternoon of 27 May 2020, the UK’s prime minister Boris Johnson told the…
Covid-19 is threatening the survival of US primary care
This is an especially difficult time to be a GP, internist, paediatrician, or other physician…
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Five minutes with . . . Aarti Bansal
“Many GPs think that climate change is important, but they still see it as a…
Covid-19: Health and care workers will be “highest priority” for vaccination, says JCVI
“Frontline” health and social care workers will be the “highest priority for vaccination” once a…
Covid-19: public health expertise is being sidelined
Scally and colleagues’ editorial is a clear, concise analysis and call to action.1 As a…
Covid-19: Public health agencies review whether vitamin D supplements could reduce risk
Public health agencies in England and Scotland are conducting urgent reviews into the potential for…
UK’s response to covid-19: crude, unadȷusted mortality figures are not the whole story
We were surprised to read the editorial by Scally and colleagues, which criticises the UK…
US healthcare workers march against racism despite the risks
Shortly before noon on 5 June 2020, dozens of healthcare workers in blue scrubs and…
Ethical decision making in a pandemic: where are the voices of vulnerable people?
As my mother struggled with feeling isolated and lonely during lockdown in her nursing home,…
Covid-19: UK drops its own contact tracing app to switch to Apple and Google model
The NHS has abandoned its plans to develop its own centralised app for contact tracing…
Covid-19: now is not the time to ȷudge the UK’s response
Scally and colleagues’ editorial on the UK’s public health response to covid-19 is disheartening.1The BMJ,…
CQC says inspections suspended for covid-19 crisis will restart in autumn
Routine inspections of healthcare providers that were suspended during the covid-19 crisis will restart this…
Harnessing the power of health taxes
The group of health services a government chooses to provide is known as a health…
Seven days in medicine: 10-16 June
Covid-19Children with certain conditions may stop shieldingMost children who are managed in a primary care…
Covid-19: Government must plan for schools to reopen, say paediatricians
Over 1500 paediatricians in the UK have called on the prime minister to publish a…
UK launches subscription style model for antibiotics to encourage new development
The UK has launched its subscription style payment model for antibiotics, with the first two…
Covid-19: social distancing or social isolation?
Governments across the globe have promoted social distancing as part of multilevel strategies to tackle…
Covid-19 could widen mental health inequalities for a generation, warns charity
The covid-19 pandemic could entrench and exacerbate inequalities in mental health for a generation unless…
Doctors who persist in denying misconduct should not be at risk of harsher sanctions, says High Court
A High Court Judge has declared that doctors who face misconduct charges at medical practitioners…
Covid-19: virtual occupational skin health clinics for healthcare workers
Collaborative working is a key feature of remote team working during the covid-19 pandemic. Occupational…
NHS health checks should start at age 25 for BAME patients, MPs hear
The NHS could help prevent illness and reduce the risk of contracting the coronavirus in…
Rashford, racism, and bankrupt excuses
In a week when rioting protesters gave “football lads” a bad name, a lad who…
Ending US health inequalities needs multiple approaches, panel says
Deaths from covid-19 among black Americans are almost double those of whites, and black, brown,…
Creating misinformation: how a headline in The BMJ about covid-19 spread virally
The spread of the novel coronavirus has been accompanied by a viral spread of misinformation….
Inappropriate medication use and polypharmacy in older people
Inappropriate medication use and polypharmacy is widespread yet continues to receive precious little attention.12 And,…
Use of an electronic decision support tool to reduce polypharmacy in elderly people with chronic diseases: cluster randomised controlled trial
AbstractObjectiveTo evaluate the effects of a computerised decision support tool for comprehensive drug review in…
How Northern Ireland relaunched contact tracing for covid-19 a month before the rest of the UK
In England, contact tracing for covid-19 was due to be relaunched by the middle of…
Epilepsy at all ages . . . and other stories
Rolandic epilepsyCharacterised by simple motor seizures, childhood epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes—or benign Rolandic epilepsy as…
Has Sweden’s controversial covid-19 strategy been successful?
This feature article by Heba Habib (BMJ 2020;369:m2376, doi:10.1136/bmj.m2376, published 12 June 2020) stated that…
Clinical efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in patients with covid-19 pneumonia who require oxygen: observational comparative study using routine care data
A reader queried the competing interests statement in the paper by Mahévas and colleagues (BMJ…
David Oliver: Let’s be open and honest about covid-19 deaths in care homes
From the first recorded UK case to June 5, the Office for National Statistics (ONS)…
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Covid-19: Deaths in the community approach 20 000 in the UK
The number of deaths involving covid-19 that have occurred in the community has passed 20…
Hypospadias
What you need to knowHypospadias is a common congenital condition characterised by a ventral meatusHypospadias…
Administration of end-of-life drugs by family caregivers during covid-19: opportunity for future home prescribing plans
Bowers and colleagues’ editorial on the administration of end-of-life drugs by family caregivers during the…
WHO warns that averting flu pandemic may be harder as surveillance switches to covid-19
The demands of responding to covid-19 are damaging the prospects of developing effective influenza vaccines…
Covid-19: Researchers question policy of closing schools after finding under 20s have low susceptibility to virus
Children and young people under 20 are half as susceptible to covid-19 and far less…
Plastic surgeons lambasted by coroner for failing to admit mistakes over death of woman who had hyperkalaemia
A coroner has lambasted the plastic surgery department at Southmead Hospital in Bristol for having…
Covid-19: Racism may be linked to ethnic minorities’ raised death risk, says PHE
Racism, discrimination, and social inequality may have contributed to the increased risk of death from…
Spending and quality after three years of Medicare’s bundled payments for medical conditions: quasi-experimental difference-in-differences study
AbstractObjectiveTo evaluate whether longer term participation in the bundled payments for care initiative (BPCI) for…
The Adaptive designs CONSORT Extension (ACE) statement: a checklist with explanation and elaboration guideline for reporting randomised trials that use an adaptive design
AbstractAdaptive designs (ADs) allow pre-planned changes to an ongoing trial without compromising the validity of…
Investigating coeliac disease in adults
What you need to knowCoeliac disease is common and underdiagnosed, with a prevalence of around…
End-of-life planning: ideas are not new but a system is needed to implement them
In their editorial Bowers and colleagues highlight two important matters—long recognised by palliative care and…
Pernicious anaemia: switch to oral B12 supplementation to reduce risk of covid-19 transmission
Mohamed and colleagues’ review of current practice in pernicious anaemia acknowledges the evidence for oral…
Covid-19: Low dose steroid cuts death in ventilated patients by one third, trial finds
Low dose dexamethasone reduces deaths in patients hospitalised with covid-19 who need ventilation, according to…
Let all international health and social care workers who worked in the pandemic stay in the UK, says college
The NHS must secure a new deal for international health and social care workers now…
Pernicious anaemia: self-administration of hydroxocobalamin in the covid-19 crisis
Mohamed and colleagues explain well the varied presentation and diagnostic difficulties of pernicious anaemia.1 I…