Printed from: https://www.cmf.org.uk/resources/publications/authors/?id=124&index=10
The media recently reported that moves were afoot to stop obese women receiving invitro fertility (IVF) on the National Health Service (NHS).[1] The broadsheets were less hysterical but many larger women received the message that the NHS was not going to help them fall pregnant.[2] Behind the headlines was a...
The ongoing conflict between orthodox medicine and the proponents of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) spilled onto the letters pages of the Times recently.[1] An open letter from leading doctors, including Professor Ernst and Nobel Prize winner Sir Black, criticised the NHS'seeping acceptance of CAM. It urged those holding influential...
They are the latest fashion accessories for medical CVs. But what exactly is a portfolio career? Why would you want one? And how can you get one? Job for life? Even within the relatively stable working environment of the medical world, there has been a move away from the traditional...
The last twelve months have seen moves to further promote the designer abortion drug RU486 around the world. Otherwise known as the antiprogesterone mifepristone, it was specifically developed as an abortifacient by French pharmaceutical firm Roussel-Uclaf (hence the letters RU) in the 1980s; in Britain it has been licensed for...
Recently I turned on the television to see a baby dying under a surgeon's knife. It wasn't a horror film, nor a medical soap like Holby City. It was a reality TV docudrama following the separation of conjoined twins. A live death In 2004, Egyptian baby Manar Maged was born...
Working with CMF Dr Rachael Pickering looks at how some doctors are using flexible working patterns to work with CMF CMF's student ministry is vitally supported by an able and willing team of staffworkers and relay workers. Each staffworker covers a few medical schools in one geographical region, and...
Alex's night is not going well. Whilst clerking down in A&E, a ward he's only just left calls him, wanting an opioid prescription. He runs back up. Bleep: the lab have thrown away a sample he spent an hour extracting from a violent, demented lady, all because he mis-spelt her...
Elizabeth Croton explains how she would tackle this complex situation: Claire chose her first house job because she really clicked with the Christian consultant. Unfortunately, things have changed recently. The consultant has become part-time, now only covering outpatients; Claire no longer has regular contact with him. The new locum ward...
James Tomlinson and Kevin Vaughan explain how they would tackle this complex situation 'I want a sex change.' John, a homosexual man in his forties, feels bad about himself.You have been treating his depression for nine months with antidepressants.Today he is armed with documentation outlining your primary care trust's sex...
In the public mind, scientists are frequently imagined to be unbiased data collectors, working purely for the advancement of humanity. Unfortunately, such impartiality is notoriously elusive: after all, scientists are humans with opinions, prejudices, motives and emotions. As students of biological science, medics are also deemed objective. However, very few...
