Latest news with #BritishMedicalAssociation
Times
18 hours ago
- Health
- Times
GP surgery awash with ‘tsunami of pee'
A medical practice has urged patients to stop dropping off unsolicited urine samples, saying the 'high volumes' are hindering their ability to provide timely care. Saltoun Surgery in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, has been inundated with specimens, forcing them to implement a strict new policy: no urine samples will be accepted unless specifically requested by a staff member. 'This change is necessary due to the high volume of inappropriate or unsolicited samples being submitted, which affects our ability to provide timely care to all patients,' explained the practice manager in a statement. While the image of a 'tsunami of pee in Fraserburgh doesn't really bear thinking about,' as one health agency spokesman put it, the issue of uninvited samples is not unique to Saltoun Surgery. The British Medical Association confirmed that 'unsolicited urine samples can be an issue' with practices developing their own solutions. The surgery said the unsolicited samples were affecting its ability to offer timely care Many GP surgeries have had to issue public notices, often via text messages or signs in their waiting rooms, explicitly stating that they will no longer accept unsolicited urine samples. In 2022, Hartshill Medical Centre, in Stoke-on-Trent, sent a text message to patients saying, 'Due to recent incidents, we will no longer be accepting unsolicited urine samples.' The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) offers guidelines for managing urine sample collection. Typically, practices provide patients with containers and clear instructions. Speaking anonymously to The Times, one GP noted that many Scottish surgeries have signs discouraging unrequested samples. This is often aimed at older patients who suspect a urinary tract infection (UTI) and drop off samples without prior consultation. 'We really, really want patients to speak to a clinician for a proper medical assessment before we ask them to bring a sample in,' the GP said. 'And when they do, we will issue them with sample bottles to return, rather than random domestic containers which can sometimes be inappropriate.' The RCGP's own website highlights a practice that successfully changed its processes after dealing with 20 to 30 unsolicited samples daily. By implementing new protocols from a UTI toolkit, the practice managed to streamline its system. Patients often use 'random domestic containers' instead of sterile sample pots provided by the practice. This increases the risk of contamination, rendering the sample useless and potentially leading to inaccurate results. Saltoun Surgery hopes its new policy, though strict, will allow the practice to better serve patients and manage the flow of vital medical information.
The Independent
20 hours ago
- Health
- The Independent
Fact check: How much do resident doctors earn, and what do they want?
This roundup of claims has been compiled by Full Fact, the UK's largest fact checking charity working to find, expose and counter the harms of bad information. In May, the Government accepted recommendations from the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration to give resident doctors (previously called 'junior' doctors) a pay rise of 4% plus £750. But the British Medical Association (BMA) says this is not enough to make up for the 'erosion' in the value of their pay that it says has happened since 2008. It is therefore balloting resident doctors about whether to strike. This fact check looks at what NHS resident doctors in England earn and what the BMA is asking for, and explores some of the claims currently circulating about their pay. Doctors have just been awarded a pay rise, so why are they threatening to strike? The BMA argues that the value of resident doctors' pay has been eroded by inflation since 2008/09, and it has published hourly pay figures showing what the pay 'restoration' it is asking for would look like. These pay figures amount to a 29% rise on the basic rates from 2024/25, instead of the 5-6% pay rise the Government announced. The Government, by contrast, says resident doctors have received the highest pay rise in the public sector for 2025/26, and that it expects average full-time basic pay for a resident doctor to reach about £54,300 in 2025/26 following the new deal. What resident doctors currently earn In the latest data for February 2025, there were 77,287 resident doctors working for NHS England. (Although a few are part-time, making this the equivalent of 74,666 full-time doctors.) These are working, qualified doctors who are also in the process of training towards a specialty, which can take a decade or more. They do not include consultants, GPs, surgeons or other senior doctors who have completed their specialist training. Resident doctors begin work after graduating with a medical degree. They are supervised by a more senior doctor, but as they gain experience some may also begin to supervise their more junior colleagues. Resident doctors need to pass exams at various points. In short, there are many different types of resident doctor, with different levels of seniority and pay. When speaking about basic pay only, for a 40-hour week, resident doctors currently earn between £38,831 and £73,992 a year, as recommended by the pay review body in May. At the time of writing however, they are still being paid at last year's rates while they wait for the new level to be applied. The Government has said they will receive the extra money, backdated to April, in August, at which point their actual pay will shift to the higher rate. The new rate amounts to a rise of about 5-6% on last year, depending on a doctor's pay grade, with the higher grades receiving slightly smaller rises in percentage terms. What about extra earnings? Basic pay does not cover everything that resident doctors earn. In the latest data for staff earnings, which covers the year ending March 2025, NHS England estimates how much different types of medical staff earned in that period. In practice, resident doctors typically earn almost a third more than their basic salary from other sources. Most of the extra pay comes from working extra hours and working unsocial hours, but it also includes geographic differences and other considerations. So does the average resident doctor now earn £54,300, as the Government says? The Government says: 'We expect the average full-time basic pay of a resident doctor will reach about £54,300 in 2025-26.' We asked the Department of Health and Social Care how this figure was calculated, and it shared its method with us. We were not able to replicate its calculations exactly, but we do know there are more resident doctors on the higher pay grades than on the lower ones, so an average in the higher part of the range seems plausible. According to NHS England workforce figures for February 2025, the resident doctor workforce breaks down as follows: – Foundation Doctor Year 1: 8,265 doctors, 11% of the total – Foundation Doctor Year 2: 7,394 doctors, 10% of the total – Core Training: 24,839 doctors, 32% of the total – Specialty Registrar: 36,789 doctors, 48% of the total It is difficult to say precisely how much the average resident doctor earns, because we can't exactly match the pay data we have to the numbers in each pay grade – and the latest NHS estimates cover earnings in the year to December 2024, before the latest pay rise was announced. Do resident doctors really earn £17/hour, as claimed by some? We've seen some claims on social media about resident doctors being paid £17 an hour. For example, one post on X which was shared by the BMA said: '£17/hr to save your life. That's the reality for NHS resident doctors in England'. This is potentially misleading, as the £17 figure seems to refer to the hourly rate of £17.56 cited by the BMA, which refers to basic pay only, for first-year doctors only, and for the last pay deal before the 2025/26 rise was announced – and the figure should in any case be £18, if rounding to the nearest pound. After the backdated pay rise, the BMA says the lowest hourly rate of basic pay will be £18.62. Full Fact has written in the past about claims which may appear to be about the pay of junior doctors in general, but are based on figures that apply only to the minority of them who are in their first year (about 11%). A BMA spokesperson told us: 'BMA publishes clear hourly rates which clearly show £17.56 as the wage per hour earned by a FY1 doctor in England. This is a fair comparison for use against other 40-hour per week jobs. FY1 doctors work on teams that save people's lives daily in the NHS. Their basic rate of pay is not affected by additional hours they might take on.'
BBC News
2 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
GPs in 'formal dispute' with ministers over £290m funding gap
Doctors have entered a formal dispute with the Scottish government, the British Medical Association (BMA) Scotland has union has called for "full restoration" of a £290m funding gap for GP surgeries and said the next step would be to ballot doctors on disruptive said the share of the health service budget has fallen against inflation every year since 2008, and surgeries cannot afford to hire the staff they Scottish government said it was taking forward discussions with BMA Scotland "to avert escalation of this dispute". A joint statement from Dr Iain Morrison, Dr Chris Black and Dr Al Miles from BMA Scotland's GP committee said doctors faced "significant challenges" in delivering core services. It said: "The ridiculous paradox of GP Partners having to look at what hours across the practice can be reduced in order to balance the books, at a time of more demand on services than ever before, must stop. "The impact this is having on the locum market and job opportunities, especially for our newly qualified GPs, is shockingly stark." The union said it would launch a "Stand with your Surgery" campaign for £290m to come back directly to GP practices. It said the declaration of the formal dispute was the next legal step in escalating concerns in preparation for a ballot on "disruptive action".Dr Iain Morrison added: "I want to make it clear, no one wants this escalation to take place. "Urgent talks with the Scottish government continue to identify how they can work with us to provide full funding restoration and exit this dispute."Research by BMA Scotland suggests the funding which GP practices receive for every patient has been eroded year after year against inflation since the Scottish government said it has increased investment and was determined to increase the number of GPs in Secretary Neil Gray said: "The Scottish government values greatly the work of general practice and is actively taking forward discussions with the BMA over this summer to avert escalation of this dispute and address the BMA's concerns."The BMA entering into formal dispute with us will not affect the care patients receive".
South Wales Guardian
2 days ago
- Health
- South Wales Guardian
Doctors' union votes for ‘identity-based care' despite warning over lawfulness
But the British Medical Association (BMA) has been warned the move risks going against the law, after the Supreme Court ruling in April that the terms woman and sex in the 2010 Equality Act 'refer to a biological woman and biological sex'. At the BMA's annual representative meeting in Liverpool on Wednesday, a majority of members voted in favour of a motion said to centre on 'respect, safety and dignity' of LGBTQ+ doctors and patients. In a speech in support of the motion, member Bethan Stanley described a 'blatant transphobia' in the current political climate, and insisted 'gender-affirming care is healthcare'. Urging her fellow members to vote yes, she said: 'I feel it is a no-brainer that we should support care that is going to improve the welfare and wellbeing of our patients.' To lengthy applause, she added: 'Trans women are women. Trans men are men.' The motion called on the BMA to 'affirm the right of all LGBTQ+ patients and staff to identity-based care and working conditions – defined as care and policies that actively account for the individual's lived, intersecting identities (including sexuality, gender, neurodivergence, race, and cultural background)' and for guidance and a 'lobbying strategy to embed this principle into NHS equality standards, training frameworks, and institutional policies'. Speaking against it, Louise Irvine said while it had a 'laudable aim of protecting LGBTQ+ and other people's rights to fair treatment' it also 'risks advocating that the BMA and other organisations adopt policies which are unlawful'. She noted two cases of nurses suing their health trusts for providing changing rooms based on gender identity rather than sex and urged the BMA to study the legal implications of the recent Supreme Court judgment. A group of nurses are challenging County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust over a policy allowing a trans colleague to use the female changing rooms at work, with their case due to be heard at an employment tribunal in the autumn. Meanwhile, in Scotland, nurse Sandie Peggie is suing NHS Fife after sharing a female changing room with a transgender doctor, with that tribunal expected to resume in July. Ms Irvine said: 'Lobbying for organisations to provide services on the basis of gender identity and not sex, means advocating that organisations disregard their public sector equality duty obligations. 'This could lead to legal liability for any discrimination or harassment experienced by service users expecting a single sex service.' She added that the BMA lobbying for organisations to adopt policies for patients and staff based on gender identity instead of sex 'could put us at variance with the law, with all the risks that that carries'. The vote reflected the 'deep passion within the profession for delivering truly personalised care', BMA representative body chair Dr Latifa Patel said. She said the court ruling 'does not prevent healthcare that takes gender identity into account' and said the union will 'call for clear, national guidance and a real lobbying strategy that enable doctors to deliver identity-informed care, so that no one is left behind'. The doctors' union has previously called for a delay to implementation of the Cass Review into children's gender services – which concluded gender care was an area of 'remarkably weak evidence' and young people had been caught up in a 'stormy social discourse'. NSH England (NHSE) last year rejected the call for a delay, saying it has 'full confidence' in the Cass Review final report. The BMA said it would carry out its own 'critique' of the report, which is yet to be published. While initially stating this would be shared with its UK council at its January meeting, a BMA spokesperson said: 'We want to be as sure as we can be that data collection and analysis processes are as rigorous and robust as possible; this requires time, rather than be rushed.' A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'We are committed to providing safe, inclusive and appropriate care for all patients, including those questioning their gender. 'We expect NHS organisations to follow employment law and good HR practices, ensuring all staff feel respected and included.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Patient waited more than 330 hours in emergency department
Conditions in emergency departments (EDs) are "soul destroying", a senior consultant has said after it was revealed that one patient waited more than 330 hours inside a unit. New figures, obtained by BBC News NI, show that in a seven-month period to January this year, one patient waited two weeks at the Ulster Hospital, while another waited 11 days at the Mater in Belfast. Dr Clodagh Corrigan, deputy chair of the British Medical Association in Northern Ireland, said conditions in EDs for staff and patients were "horrific". In a statement, the Department of Health (DoH) acknowledged that waiting times in EDs "fall well below the standard of care that we strive to provide". The DoH target is for 95% of patients to be treated, discharged or admitted within four hours and no patient to wait longer than 12 hours. Dr Corrigan, who is an emergency medicine consultant, has called on the department to spend its money more effectively. A Freedom of Information request from BBC News NI revealed that every health trust in Northern Ireland experienced patient waits of about week or more. The Northern Health Trust said a wait of more than 10 days for a patient in Antrim Area Hospital was because they needed to be isolated in a side room for other people's safety. "If there's space, it's taken up by somebody," said Dr Corrigan. She added that patients who might be vomiting or suffering from diarrhoea were queuing for the one toilet available in a unit. "It's a soul-destroying work environment. You can't give the care you want to give," she said. "You certainly aren't giving the care you're trained to give. It's not the care you'd want your family to receive." There are currently hundreds of people stuck in hospitals across Northern Ireland who are medically fit to be discharged but do not have a care package or an appropriate facility to go to. The BMA said this increases pressure in EDs because people are not moving through the hospital system. The BBC requested data from all five health trusts under Freedom of Information, including that relating to the height of the winter pressures over Christmas and New Year. They reflect the immense pressure healthcare staff were under at the time, with one nursing leader describing conditions as "intolerable". Between 12 December 2024 and 20 January this year, 140 patients had to wait in crowded EDs for more than 100 hours. At Altnagelvin Area Hospital, one person spent a week in its ED. The hospital recorded the highest number of patients waiting the longest times, with 48 people waiting for more than 100 hours. Dr Corrigan said the BMA was calling for greater investment in the health service and multi-year budgets. "The money that exists needs to be used better. There's been an awful lot of investment in a lot of new initiatives... and while we welcome some of those initiatives, we're not seeing the pressures easing from them," she said. "It might be better investing in the services that are already here and shaping them better." In a statement, the Department of Health said Health Minister Mike Nesbitt was "acutely aware of the pressures within emergency departments". "The department also recognises the risk of possible harm to patients who experience long waiting times in ED and is working with trusts to improve patient flow through urgent and emergency care," it added. There were still major waits for patients in EDs this week, with patients at Craigavon Area Hospital waiting an average of 15 hours to be seen on Monday. Patients 'frightened' to go to hospital over lengthy ED waits Elderly patients' five-day wait in 'intolerable' A&E Ambulance patient waits 19 hours outside hospital
