Editor's Choice | This Week in BMJ | Press releases
BMJ No 7122 Volume 315 Press Releases Saturday 13 December 1997 Embargoed: 00.01 hrs 12 December 1997 UK time Quiet room is needed in hospitals for prayer and reflection Quiet room is needed in hospitals for prayer and reflectionIn this week's BMJ, Sheikh writes a letter suggesting that a "quiet room", set aside for prayer or meditation, should be available in all hospitals in Britain, in order to make them more sensitive to the multicultural needs of the society that they serve. Sheikh notes that there are two million Muslims living in Britain, including doctors and other health professionals. Prayer often has a pivotal role in their lives, particularly when dealing with their everyday stresses. Currently, many hospitals do not have adequate provision for Muslim patients and the health professionals working there.
Contact:
Department of General Practice and
Primary Health Care,
tel: 0171 594 3384 NHS bonds should replace PFIIn a letter in this week's BMJ, Keen et al suggest that many health professionals mistrust the private finance initiative, as they see it as a costly option (PFI has come to stand for "profiting from illness" say the authors). Keen et al propose a "better and less costly alternative", in the form of Government backed NHS bonds, whereby institutional investors and private individuals could make a safe and worthwhile investment. The authors add that by utilising such a method of funding, health care policy would also remain in public hands.
Contact:
NHS Support Federation, tel/fax: 0171 586 7942
Drug to beat high cholesterol is cost effective(The West of Scotland coronary prevention study: economic benefit analysis of primary prevention with pravastatin)The West of Scotland coronary prevention study left little doubt that the drug "pravastatin" could prevent cardiovascular disease in men with high cholesterol levels. However, these findings were of concern to health authorities because of the economic implications, given the large number of candidates. To address these concerns, in this week's BMJ, Caro et al estimate how many men would benefit and at what cost. The authors found that for every 31 men with high cholesterol who start treatment, one will avoid cardiovascular problems over the following five years. The paper suggests that pravastatin used in this way could be an efficient health care resource, although further research should be conducted to ascertain which patients would benefit most.
See Paper (abstract only) p 1577
Contact:
Caro Research,
tel: 001 508 371 1660 Asian GPs are not high cost prescribers(Effect of doctors' ethnicity and country of qualification on prescribing patterns in single handed general practices: linkage of information collected by questionnaire and from routine data)In the past it has been suggested that doctors trained in the Indian subcontinent issue more prescriptions and more expensive items than non-Asian doctors. In a paper published in this week's BMJ, Gill et al found no significant difference between Asian doctors who qualified in the Indian subcontinent and British trained Asian and white doctors for the prescribing costs, the number of items prescribed and the percentage of generic drugs. The authors conclude that the results refute the myth that Asian doctors are high volume and high cost prescribers.
Contact:
Department of General Practice ,
tel: 0121 414 3758/3765
(Management of head and neck cancer in Britain)
A paper and an accompanying editorial in this week's BMJ, written by
Edwards et al and Tobias respectively, raise concerns over the management
of head and neck cancers in the UK. Edwards et al find that even though a
"team approach" has long been recommended for the various types of
consultant involved with such cancers (including ENT, maxillofacial and
plastic surgeons and medical and clinical oncologists), it is only
practised by half of consultants. Tobias describes this finding as
"gloomy" and suggests that "we need to do more than pay lip service to the
concept of the team approach... and that treatment decisions should be far
more thoroughly discussed before implementation, as is currently the case".
See Editorial p 1556 and Paper p 1589
Contact:
Royal College of Surgeons Department of
Dental Sciences/Department of Oral Medicine and Pathology,
tel: 01582 744800 x 4767 or 0585 543081
J S Tobias, President
British Association of Head and Neck Oncologists,
tel: 0171 636
8333 x 4753 or 0171 380 9214 or 0171 249 2326
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