One in six NHS patients 'misdiagnosed'

As many as one in six patients treated in NHS hospitals and GPs’ surgeries is being misdiagnosed, experts have warned.

By Kate Devlin and Rebecca Smith

Doctors were making mistakes in up to 15 per cent of cases because they were too quick to judge patients’ symptoms, they said, while others were reluctant to ask more senior colleagues for help.

While in most cases the misdiagnosis did not result in the patient suffering serious harm, a sizeable number of the millions of NHS patients were likely to suffer significant health problems as a result, according to figures. It was said that the number of misdiagnoses was “just the tip of the iceberg”, with many people still reluctant to report mistakes by their doctors.

There was a call for better reporting methods to ensure that each misdiagnosis was recorded and monitored properly.

Prof Graham Neale, of the Imperial Centre for Patient Safety and Service Quality at Imperial College London, who is carrying out research into cases of misdiagnosis in the NHS, said it was a problem that was not being adequately dealt with.

“There is absolutely no doubt that this is being under-reported,” he said. “But more importantly they are not being adequately analysed.

“Trainee doctors are too quick to judgment, that is one of the problems that we face.”

He added, however, that in many cases, the medical errors were rectified within 48 hours.

The experts drew on research published in the American Journal of Medicine that estimated that up to 15 per cent of all medical cases in developed countries were misdiagnosed.

Earlier this year, the Healthcare Commission found that missed or wrong diagnoses were a major cause of complaints to the NHS. Of more than 9,000 complaints analysed, almost one in 10 related to a delay in diagnosis or the wrong diagnosis being made. Separate research also suggested that one in 10 patients in hospital was harmed because of the care they received.

Concern at closure of ME Clinic

By Staff reporter

SIR - The recent closure of Northern Ireland's only ME Clinic at Belfast City Hospital was not an accident. Poor long term policy planning had made it inevitable. From the beginning the consultant in charge was given no remuneration of any kind; he worked voluntarily. Originally the unit was the regional referral centre, with many patients coming from South Down, Mid Antrim, and west of the Bann. There was always a waiting list. But in 2007 it began refusing patients from outside Belfast. F

It was a profound mistake for this clinic to be managed by the Psychiatric Department in Windsor House. Naturally many patients found psychiatric classification inaccurate and insulting, and many boycotted the unit for that reason. Funding was in place for a second Occupational Therapist, but it was withdrawn recently. Notice of closure was quietly circulated internally in July 2009, but patients and MLAs did not find out until September.

The Department of Health at Stormont says that closure of the clinic was due to the “pressure of competing priorities.” There are 6750 M.E. patients in Northern Ireland, 4935 patients with breast cancer, and 2445 with Multiple Sclerosis. Which DOH civil servant decided that, alone among these different clinical conditions, only ME patients are to have no specialist unit?

Not just all in the mind

Times Letters:

"The assertion "many doctors believe ME has a psychological rather than a physical cause" contradicts the Royal College of GPs, which reclassified ME as a physical illness in August 2008. It also opposed the view of Lord Darzi, the Dept of Health, the WHO and biomedical research. The statement may be rephrased to say a minotrity of psychiatrists think ME is psychological.

In fact, many doctors are hoping that NICE guidelines will be amended to reflect current understanding of ME as physcial in original and phsysiological in its development, so as to provide a more practical model for general practice.

Dr Matthew Harris
Exeter, Devon"

CBT sale ...

This is what it's like to have M.E.

by Pat Mathewson
Being too weak to wash or dress yourself.

Too weak to clean your own teeth.

Too weak to wash and dry your own hair so that your teenage son has to do it.

Too weak to do the cooking you love.

Too weak to chop a carrot.

Too weak to cut up your own food on your plate.

It means listening to the laughter and chatter of your family in a distant room as they try to enjoy Christmas without you... as you lie in a darkened room wishing you could fall asleep

Yes Professor this is the way to your kingdom ...

Plain nuts ...

Promising new therapy for ME ...

I was running down the corridor of my own clinic where I see sufferers with ‘neurasthenia’ or ‘nerve weakness’. Most politicians, and almost every doctor in the world seems to think that we in the Magic CBT kingdom see sufferers with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), they even seem to think that CFS is also called myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).

Not only was it pure genius on my site to sit around a table with a number of my good old friends who came up with the lucrative idea to eradicate ME from this planet by first changing the name to chronic fatigue syndrome, and then by changing the criteria..

Doctors want to be fooled, and we certainly succeeded.

We have successfully sold them the ludicrous idea that CBT and GET can cure or improve a serious neurological disease, and now I have come up with an even better idea, it is very simple and I like it very much.

You can compare it to just mentioning the word swimming pool to a severely handicapped patient with ME and if they don't get the gist, I just mention the name of Ean Proctor and if that is not enough, I get my book out and fill in a section form.

It is very difficult to section a psychiatric patient. Yet, if someone suffers from ME it is a piece of cake.

I think, no I know for sure that this new therapy will not only earn me more money. But I will also get at least one Nobel Prize, You see, treat these terrible patients Three or four times a year with a simple “colonic lavage” and they will never come back to the clinic.

Better still, they might emigrate, and we have really saved the country from these patients, who keep on harassing me. Even though they are bedridden. An amazing accomplishment if they where really seriously ill, as they say.

There is one thing though that bothers me a bit. One patient, in particular was complaining of noise intolerance and she said that these MRI scanners were so bloggingly loud.

So, silly me. I agreed to lie in the machine to see for myself. Not only that, but one of our radiologists happened to be watching the computer screen. He kindly showed me the pictures afterwards, and apparently he found something in my head.

Not only do I now have proof that I do have a brain but I also have, very close to my speech centre, an s shaped centre, also called an investment centre and the bigger it is the more vested interests someone has the radiologist told me.

He has also told me that he will publish his findings in the journal for CBT-ism and in the journal from the National Institute of ignoring clinical evidence, also called the GOBSART Institute.

I have threatened to section him or to throw him in the pool, but the silly man wasn't impressed. it turned out that he beat Mark Foster in the Olympic pool and he spent his younger years as an agent in the special forces. and he said that if you can survive what they throw at you there Then sectioning is just a word he muttered.

When he pulled the piece of paper out of my hands, he chewed on it and then swallowed it before I could do anything. when he started to smile, I knew it was time to call it a day.

And whilst I might regret the fact that my days as a psychiatrist are numbered there are still a lot of patients that I would like to treat with one of my silly therapies .

Even at the beginning of the 21st century, porky telling is still a very very lucrative business. the last time I counted I had almost as much money as that racefixing fellow, who is now enjoying life in Kenya.

I always thought that these CFS patients were pathetic, but how about this Nelson Piquet Jr. Fellow who just crashes into a concrete wall on purpose.

Sebastian Battle said you must be a raving lunatic, or words to that effect, to do that, there was no tiger wall or anything else to protect him. Maybe this young Brazilian should consider 12 to 16 sessions of CBT, and as I have always been a great fan of his father, the three-time world champion Nelson Piquet, senior. I will throw in these sessions for free, on the house or better on the kingdom so to speak.

The rest of this exhilarating article by one of our beloved friends will be available on this blog in the near future, for now, enjoy your CBT. And remember, CBT was invented to cope with abusive, hostile doctors. CBT as in cool blogging therapy that is.

Top Gear Aston Martin Vantage V12

BY; sssyco
"The closing scenes of Top Gear Season 13 features a rather somber Jeremy Clarkson driving an Aston Martin Vantage 6.0 Litre V12. Not so much a review of the car, the clip stands testimony to the fact that Top Gear's Camera crew and Video Editors are amongst the best on this planet.
p.s. I don't think this is the end of TG as Clarkson mentions in passing (earlier in the episode) that they will resume shooting in November."

REVOLTe ...

Citroen has been busy readying three forward-looking electric cars to show here at Frankfurt. One of them really does look far into the future…

The REVOLTe is an electric concept, showing a city car application of rechargeable electric-hybrid technology. Citroen reckons it can offer zero-emissions electric-only running, plus very low fuel consumption when the engine is running. It's not quite ready - the challenge is getting costs low enough for small car buyers - but it's an exciting study.

Design wise, it's far out, and harks back to the original 2CV. And, get this: in Citroen's own words, whereas that car was 'slow and bouncy', this is 'lively and spirited'. It has rear-hinged doors, an extreme three-seater interior and, just maybe, points to a second future production line for the DS range?

The first - the DS3 - is now on display as a fully productionised car. This represents the first of an upmarket, boutique range of Citroëns, with the DS3 aimed firmly at buyers of the MINI. Anyone who thought BMW had this sector tied up has only to look at how successful Fiat has been with the 500 to know that the market is still wide open.

But the DS3 will be more expensive than the Fiat, and the craftsmanship and sheer amount of interesting detail displayed on here in Frankfurt will, in our eyes, do a power of good for the whole Citroën range. The cabin really does feel top dollar. Not that it has been holding back in other areas.

Scientists claim: "Men tell twice as many lies as women"

But wait a second. The scientists who made this claim were men, so they were probably lying.

Weasels are runnin me to death ...

Weasels are runnin me to death,
I checked my gas there ain't much left.
Still i will take a parting shot,
Before I leave myself to rot.

Barbaric motherfucking weasels

Weasels
Weasels

Weasels have always been my friends,
I've turned them loose now there's no end.
Giants of rock tell giant lies,
Weasels control the evil skies.
Barbaric motherfucking weasels,
Bad breath bad taste cause of diseases.

I feel disgrace and I feel shame,
I feel anger and I feel blame,
I feel suspicion and I feel pride,
I feel weasels on all sides.

Weasels
Weasels
Weasels
Weasels
Weasels

With guitars on t.v,
Weasels
Rewriting rock history,
Weasels
With an office and a chair,
Weasels
With nice butts and long silky hair.

Weasels suck and weasels blow,
Weasels control rock and roll
Weasels control rock and roll
Weasels control rock and roll
Weasels control rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll

Weasels


Weasels by Iggy Pop

CBT is magical

Sophia Mirza before ME

MaverickMiracle "Sophia Mirza in 1997 physically healthy. By 1999 she was bedbound and severely ill with ME. Sophia was a talented, vibrant, funny, life-loving girl who grabbed life with both hands. She died in 2005 because her physical disease was treated as a mental illness. This treatment of ME needs to change. "

Prof CBT ...

McLaren road car marks expansion

BBC NEWS | Business | Formula One racing group McLaren has unveiled a new road car that marks the creation of a new UK-based carmaker.

It plans to build the cars in a factory that it will build next to the group's headquarters in Woking.

Plans to rival the likes of Ferrari and Aston Martin are part of a strategy to grow the business outside racing, where cost cutting pressure is fierce.

The move could help cushion McLaren's racing staff from job losses if F1 budgets are cut.

CBT: Chocolate Bunnies Treat ...

THE MENTAL HEALTH MOVEMENT: PERSECUTION OF PATIENTS?

BY Professor Malcolm Hooper:
'A CONSIDERATION OF THE ROLE OF PROFESSOR SIMON WESSELY AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE “WESSELY SCHOOL” IN THE PERCEPTION OF MYALGIC ENCEPHALOMYELITIS (ME) IN THE UK

• In the UK, patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or CFS), particularly children, have suffered gross and barbaric abuse and persistent denigration as a consequence of the beliefs of certain psychiatrists who are attempting to control the national agenda for this complex and severe neuro-immunological disorder
  
• These psychiatrists are shown to be clearly in breach of the first tenet of medicine --- first do no harm--- in that by their words and deeds they have wreaked havoc in the lives of ME/CFS patients and their families by their arrogant pursuit of a psychiatric construct of the disorder which ignores the abundant clinical and scientific evidence (widely presented in the international medical and scientific literature) of the organic nature of ME/CFS
  
• There have been persistent and frequently covert attempts by these psychiatrists to subvert the international classification of this disorder, with destructive consequences for those affected
  
• To the serious disadvantage of patients, these psychiatrists have propagated untruths and falsehoods about the disorder to the medical, legal, insurance and media communities, as well as to Government Ministers and to Members of Parliament, resulting in the withdrawal and erosion of both social and financial support
  
• Influenced by these psychiatrists, Government bodies such as the Medical Research Council have continued to propagate the same falsehoods with the result that patients are left without any hope of understanding or of health service provision or delivery. As a consequence, Government funding into the biomedical aspects of the disorder is non-existent
  
• This coterie of psychiatrists has proven affiliations with corporate industry and has insidiously infiltrated all the major institutions, directing funding for research into an exclusively psychiatric model of the disorder, focusing on “management strategies” involving psychiatric techniques, even though such techniques have been shown to be at best of no lasting value and at worst to be harmful to patients with ME/CFS'
  
  
  

Question a doctor and lose your child

PARENTS are being threatened with having their children taken into care after questioning doctors’ diagnoses or objecting to their medical care.

John Hemming, a Liberal Democrat MP, who campaigns to stop injustices in the family court, said: “Very often care proceedings are used as retaliation by local authorities against ‘uppity’ people who question the system.”

Cases are emerging across the UK:

The mother of a 13-year-old girl who became partly paralysed after being given a cervical cancer vaccination says social workers have told her the child may be removed if she (the mother) continues to link her condition with the vaccination.

CBT – ism ...

CBT – ism ... is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.

CFS Patient Advocate

"The job of Patient Advocate came upon me uninvited. I did not apply for this job, nor did I have any qualifications for it. I am a sculptor, not a doctor or a researcher. My daughter became sick with a mysterious fatigue illness and I was the obvious person to fill the job .

Learning the job of a PA unfolds over time and there is no instruction manual. Certain ideas and thoughts can be transferred from former jobs and former lives, but much has to be learned from scratch.

It is helpful in doing the PA job if you have a lot of time and a lot of money, as the solution to this disease takes a great deal of both. It would also be helpful to have an education in bio-chemistry, of which I have none. The most important qualification that a Patient Advocate needs is persistence and discipline. A PA also needs to remain objective and detached, even under the most extreme conditions. Every Patient Advocate has a patient.

My patient is my daughter. The objective of this particular Patient Advocate is to make his daughter better. How to set about it is another matter, and ..."

GIT not GET ...