Didn’t Lansley reforms put an end to naive political interference?

Despite his enthusiasm, I’m not convinced Matt Hancock, Secretary for Health and Social Care, (see BMJ news analysis), fully understands the history of digitalisation of the NHS (see previous post). He needs to put computerisation in perspective and recognise there are genuine problems. I summarised these in a previous post, 

The essence of the problems is poor usability; taking too much time; interference with face-to-face patient contact; and degradation of clinical documentation.

I’m not disputing the need to give an impetus to IT in the NHS, but this does need to be focused on improving clinician satisfaction rather than making work in the NHS more difficult. Otherwise we’re just going to go through another wasteful phase of computer consultants ripping off the NHS.

How will the film Cold War go down in Poland?

The brilliance of Pawel Palinowski’s latest film, Cold War, as with his previous film Ida, is partly because of the way he blends political allegory about the state of Poland into a glorious film. As far as the film is concerned, Poland comes to an end in the Cold War and the only hope is a young child left behind. I look forward to seeing Palinowski take forward his themes about Poland into the more recent era.

Nothing left in the tank

Alaister Cook is leaving the England team to find others to depend on (see his resignation statement). He started test cricket at a young age (see Guardian report). But England came to depend on him too much (see previous post). At least Sam Curran and Moeen Ali prevented Joe Root suffering the same responsibilities as captain in the last test, although hopefully he will be able to bat at four, where he wants to bat. I'd put Bairstow at three, not Ali. Still, I look forward to last India test this summer at Oval, as I have tickets for third and fourth day. I hope Alaister Cook leaves on a high.

Scolt Head Island

A rarely visited hump of dune on the Norfolk coast, not far from me and visited yesterday.

Medical disciplinary procedures need improving

As I know to my cost (see eg. previous post), there are problems with at least the implementation of medical disciplinary procedures. My medical protection society has produced an excellent document  to take this issue forward. See the highlights on my twitter thread.

Ian Kennedy's back

I appreciated Ian Kennedy's Reith lectures in 1980 (see previous post). But I think he got caught up in a managerialism (see another previous post), which had disastrous consequences for the Healthcare Commission (see another previous post), of which he was the chair, and may have contributed to a phase of bullying in the NHS (see another previous post) and even the mid-Staffs inquiry (see yet another previous post), in which there was an element of scapegoating which has still not been adequately recognised and accepted (see even another previous post).

However, he seems to have now come back 'on song'. As reported in the BMJ, he is quoted as saying that the "role of criminal law and medical manslaughter in cases where doctors make mistakes must be rethought" (see news item). After all, David Sellu was jailed for gross negligence manslaughter and later had his conviction overturned (see another BMJ news item). This has relevance for the Hazida Bawa-Garba case (see timeline). It even has relevance for the Ian Paterson case which Kennedy himself reviewed (see yet another BMJ news item). Even the prosecutor at the trial admitted that Paterson's motives remained obscure (see BMJ news item). However unprofessional his conduct may have been he seems to have not been aware of it. Paterson maintained his innocence throughout the trial and sat with his eyes mostly closed, shaking his head throughout the statements (see another BMJ news item).

Maybe Kennedy is angling to do the report on this matter. He even did the MPs' expenses inquiry. I do wonder though whether he ought to hand over to someone else.

What do you do if a cricket ball won’t reverse?

Hey, guess who’s on Mad In America radio 

Special performance from Jos Buttler

Pleased to witness ODI series win by England (see tweet)