NHS bullies trying to silence another doctor who dared to criticize low standards

Report from Dr Rant this morning that another doctor has been sacked for speaking out about low standards/lack of funding. The article from the local paper is here.

What isn't reported here is just as important as what is: the newspaper piece does not mention the actual reason for Dr Shirine Boardman's dismissal, except to say that "... it does not relate to any issues of patient safety or clinical competence."

This utter failure to report the real reasons for such disciplinary action and clinicians' real reasons for speaking up is almost tantamount to a 'D notice' - where editors are not allowed even to report that they are not allowed to report....

What is it that NHS chiefs are so desperate to hide?

Source

Newspaper article follows:

Specialist doctor sacked by hospital

A Warwick Hospital consultant who set up a health project to help combat diabetes in and around Leamington has been sacked. Dr Shirine Boardman worked at the Lakin Road site as a diabetologist for eight years and established a clinic for Asian people at Leamington's Queensway Community Centre last year. She was sacked by the hospital's bosses on July 22, but is appealing against the decision.

Hospital chief executive Glen Burley said: "Dr Shirine Boardman was dismissed following an internal hearing carried out in accordance with our disciplinary procedures. "We are not going to comment in detail on the nature of the misconduct, but we can say that it does not relate to any issues of patient safety or clinical competence." Dr Boardman declined to comment until after the appeal, but said she was "passionate" about her job.

Chairman of the South Warwickshire Diabetes UK support group David Gent said: "She was our vice-president and we hope that she will continue in that role. "Her loss is going to be great. She will be very difficult to replace because she had a passion for what she did. "She gave us her full support in what we were trying to do - get better services for diabetes patients in this area. "We will have to await the outcome of the appeal, but we hope it will be in her favour and ours."

Dr Boardman was featured in the Courier in June calling for Warwickshire Primary Care Trust to improve services. She said more specialist services in the community, closer working with GPs and greater public consultation could help "transform" it. The Apnee Sehat clinic was created with Warwick University to try and reduce high levels of diabetes, heart disease and stroke in the Asian population. The research clinic, where doctors and nurses have been involved in teaching Sikhs and Hindus about managing and preventing the illnesses, was heralded by the NHS's director of GPs Professor David Colin-Thome as "the start of a new era in community care". Funded by the university and charitable grants, it has been nominated for a number of awards including the NHS's Reducing Health Inequalities social care award.

The Primary Care Trust's former director of public health Dr Tim Davies has said the clinic's future would be reassessed this year based on whether it had achieved better results than the hospital service.

Source




"Dr. Scot" update

Re: Silencing attempt noted here on 15th.

Dr Scot Jnr. was reinstated and went back to work on 16th. The powers that be had managed to keep the story of his dismissal out of the national newspapers/television, incredibly. But bloggers and others took up the story. Once it went global, it's likely that the game was up for the young doctor's bullies.

The story doesn't end there exactly because there has been a formal complaint to the General Medical Council about these senior medical women's behaviour. This is likely to roll on interminably as state bureaucracies do. But there will be a story in that - a sort of test case even.







ANOTHER GREAT THEORY BITES THE DUST

Aspirin seems to loosen up the blood flow generally and that should be a good thing for the restricted bloodflow found in aged brains -- and thus keep the brains concerned a bit younger. So is regular aspirin intake a good thing if you want to avoid going ga-ga? Sorry. No effect! Pesky things, these placebo controls!

Low dose aspirin and cognitive function in middle aged to elderly adults: randomised controlled trial

By Jackie F Price et al.

Objective To determine the effects of low dose aspirin on cognitive function in middle aged to elderly men and women at moderately increased cardiovascular risk.

Design Randomised double blind placebo controlled trial.

Setting Central Scotland.

Participants 3350 men and women aged over 50 participating in the aspirin for asymptomatic atherosclerosis trial.

Intervention Low dose aspirin (100 mg daily) or placebo for five years.

Main outcome measures Tests of memory, executive function, non-verbal reasoning, mental flexibility, and information processing five years after randomisation, with scores used to create a summary cognitive score (general factor).

Results At baseline, mean vocabulary scores (an indicator of previous cognitive ability) were similar in the aspirin (30.9, SD 4.7) and placebo (31.1, SD 4.7) groups. In the primary intention to treat analysis, there was no significant difference at follow-up between the groups in the proportion achieving over the median general factor cognitive score (32.7% and 34.8% respectively, odds ratio 0.91, 95% confidence interval 0.79 to 1.05, P=0.20) or in mean scores on the individual cognitive tests. There were also no significant differences in change in cognitive ability over the five years in a subset of 504 who underwent detailed cognitive testing at baseline.

Conclusion Low dose aspirin does not affect cognitive function in middle aged to elderly people at increased cardiovascular risk.

BMJ 2008;337:a1198.






Yet another episode in England's black crime nightmare: "A greengrocer was stabbed to death in a revenge attack after a row over a 90-cent orange, a UK court has heard. The 25-year-old greengrocer, Khalil Nasseri, was allegedly knifed in the chest by 39-year-old Delroy Brown after he caught Mr Brown trying to steal the orange from a South London fruit shop in January, the Daily Mail reported. "[Brown] took an orange from the greengrocers' fruit display in the street and he began to peel it with a knife," Peter Kyte, QC, told a court. "He appeared unwilling to pay for that orange. Khalil Nasseri challenged him to pay for the orange and a disagreement between these two people ensued." Brown first attacked Mr Nasseri with a hammer he took from his car, but was disarmed by other shopkeepers and chased from the store, but not before warning Mr Nasseri: "I will return. This is not over ... I'm coming back for your blood", the Daily Mail said. "He was chased away from the scene by a number of people and he returned a couple of days later, this time he came with reinforcements, two other black men," Peter Kyte, QC, told the court. One of the men had a knife, Mr Kyte said. They assaulted shopkeepers at the store before stabbing Mr Nasseri to "almost instantaneous death", he said."