Seven days in medicine: 11-17 March 2020
BMJ 2020; 368 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1073 (Published 19 March 2020) Cite this as: BMJ 2020;368:m1073
Covid-19
CQC agrees to suspend routine inspections
The Royal College of General Practitioners welcomed a decision by England’s healthcare regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), to immediately suspend all routine inspections to allow healthcare providers to focus on the covid-19 crisis. The decision came after the college’s chair, Martin Marshall, wrote to Ian Trenholm, CQC chief executive, urging the regulator to give practices “temporary respite” from the regulatory process. The college said that the CQC’s decision would enable teams to dedicate their time to providing frontline care.
GPs ask for contractual protections if they stop normal practice
GP leaders called for assurances that they would not face contractional sanctions if a covid-19 pandemic forced them to suspend normal practice. Delegates attending a special conference of local medical committees, held in London on 11 March, unanimously voted in favour of a motion that called on the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee in England to negotiate changes to protect practices in a covid-19 pandemic. The motion said that practices should be able to “prioritise frontline work” and suspend other requirements. (Full story doi:10.1136/bmj.m1038)
Global medical conferences are cancelled after US case link
Medical conferences around the world were cancelled because of fears about covid-19 after a meeting in the US state of Massachusetts was linked to 70 suspected …
Log in
Log in using your username and password
Log in through your institution
Subscribe from £184 *
Subscribe and get access to all BMJ articles, and much more.
* For online subscription
Access this article for 1 day for:
£50 / $60/ €56 (excludes VAT)
You can download a PDF version for your personal record.