As promised, an update on Tuesday’s domestic abuse seminar, held by the BMA at the Norwegian Church in Cardiff Bay. First of all, I’d just like to thank everyone involved in making the event such a success, it was very well attended, perhaps in part due to the wide field of experts we had speaking [...]
Archive for April, 2009
Declaring war on the home front
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009We’re holding a seminar this evening to highlight what is still for many, very much a “hidden”, never-to-be-talked-about issue, at the same time as being a huge problem. In Wales alone last year, an estimated 81,000 adults aged 16 to 59 were the victim of domestic abuse. This includes 46,000 women and 35,000 men. * [...]
Notifying members of the GMC’s new campaign “Licensing: It’s time to decide”
Friday, April 24th, 2009We want to make our members aware of the GMC’s new campaign “Licensing: It’s time to decide”. This is being introduced this autumn. The GMC will be writing to all registered doctors over the course of the next few weeks, asking them to decide whether or not they want a licence to practise After licensing [...]
Big Brother is watching – to help protect NHS staff
Friday, April 24th, 2009I know our members will welcome this announcement about a pilot CCTV scheme to deal with violence against NHS staff. Anything that can act as a deterrent is a good thing. We have reiterated time and again how violence and aggression aimed at doctors and other health workers, just trying to do their job, ie. [...]
Wales lags behind when it comes to stroke services
Friday, April 24th, 2009The Royal College of Physicians’ latest report into stroke care services makes for disappointing reading for Wales. There seem to be big geographical differences here, which don’t seem to be occurring in England and Northern Ireland. Has the so-called postcode lottery, seen in drugs and treatment for various forms of cancers, now spread to stroke [...]
Could do better Darling
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009The Chancellor Alistair Darling’s taxation increase on alcohol by 2%, is a step in the right direction, but to be honest, it really doesn’t go far enough. We’ve been campaigning for some time for higher taxes on alcoholic drinks, but crucially, this increase should be proportionate to the amount of alcohol in the product. Today’s [...]
Pressures on NHS bed risks patient safety
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009Today, we’re highlighting the dangers of cramming patients onto hospital wards, at the same time as the number of beds on wards, are falling. Because we’re so concerned, we’ve just held a media briefing with Dr Andrew Dearden, Chair of Welsh Council and Dr Stefan Coghlan, Chair of the BMA’s Welsh Consultants Committee. Figures show [...]
1000 Lives Campaign, one year on
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009So, we’re a year on from the start of the 1000 Lives Campaign and it does seem that progress has been made in the first twelve months, with an estimated 410 lives being saved in that time. A year ago, we welcomed the initiative and its drive to create safer environments and consistently high standards [...]
BMA Welsh Council Chair features in Western Mail column
Monday, April 20th, 2009This may be of interest to members. Please take the time to read this column. Share:
Report of visit to BMA Wales Council Meeting 11th March 2009
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009I thought it might be useful and interesting for members to read a visitor’s account of the last Welsh Council meeting, held in March. This was written by Clare Jenkins, Chair of Powys Division. “I was pleased to be able to attend the recent meeting of Welsh Council. Gregynog Hall was an interesting choice of [...]
Blog worth reading and poll worth voting on
Thursday, April 9th, 2009Nick Nunn, I applaud you and your blog, you take the words right out of my mouth! And don’t forget, there’s still time to vote on our poll on this matter, see the right hand side of this page, let me know what you think. Share:
How big an issue does binge drinking in Wales need to be before serious action is taken?
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009If ever we needed proof of how big a problem alcohol misuse is becoming in Wales, then this report from the National Public Health Service for Wales surely gives us just that. Just to give you a taster of what’s in the report; 1,000 people die from causes related to alcohol in Wales each year [...]