The BMJ’s new “practical prescribing” series aims to improve decision making
Written prescriptions for medicinal products can be traced back over 4000 years.1 Little is known about the clinical efficacy or patient acceptability of formulations in use at that time, but it is thought that prescriptions were recorded on clay tablets, and included details of the condition, the formulation of plant and animal products, and dosing instructions.
Prescribing continues to be one of the most fundamental parts of medicine and one of the most common interventions in health care. In the UK, the British National Formulary lists more than 1600 drugs, which range from simple chemical substances that have been available for decades to new, small, interfering RNA molecules and products containing enzymes produced by recombinant …
Overseas doctors on an England-wide trainee scheme are being paid less than trainees employed by trusts and face reduced benefits, finds Madlen Davies
English hospital trusts have been accused of using doctors from overseas as “cheap labour” as part of fellowship schemes in which they can be paid less than doctors employed by trusts and sent home if they become pregnant, The BMJ has found.
Foreign doctors come to English hospital trusts as “fellows” as part of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges’ medical training initiative (MTI) scheme.1 They work for two years in the NHS to gain experience that they will take back to their home countries afterwards. A proportion of fellows are sponsored, for example by their home country, and others are employed directly by an NHS trust.
In some NHS trusts fellows receive the same pay and benefits as employed doctors, but University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, and Walsall Healthcare NH