Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the Medical News Summary blog. This post will cover highlights in both medical and health news from the 25th of April to the 1st of May. Of note this past week, we saw junior doctors take part in an all-out strike.
All out junior doctor strike
This week almost 80% of junior doctors took part in the first ever all-out strike in the history of the NHS. On Tuesday and Wednesday junior doctor’s refused to work between the hours of 8am and 5pm in a response to health secretary, Jeremy Hunt imposing a junior doctor contract effecting out-of-hours working. During the strikes most hospitals coped well and didn’t experience any problems. This is thought to be due to the fact that A&E units were quieter than usual, mainly because patients with minor problems listened to NHS warnings to stay away from A&E is possible.
Dr Johann Malawana, chair of the British Medical Association committee said that there was a high turnout at the 150 picket lines across England, which shows the strength of feelings amongst junior doctors against the imposed contracts.
No agreement in sight
However, despite the strike action both ministers and doctors have vowed to fight on. The British Medical Association will now spend the upcoming days considering their next options in a bid to oppose the new contracts that are to be enforced by Jeremy Hunt.
Some of their potential options include further strike action, refusing to do vital paperwork and pursuing legal challenges to the contracts. The government have responded by saying that any further strike action will not stop the new contract from being imposed this summer as they are confident in their decision.
Depression linked to dementia in the elderly
Scientists at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam have found that elderly people who suffer worsening symptoms of depression have an increased risk of developing dementia. The study tracked 3,325 people over 21 years and found that those who had experience depression for over three years were over a fifth more likely to develop dementia than those who did not have depression.
Those participants who only had episodes of depression were not at a greater risk of developing dementia. Currently the cause of the link of the two conditions is unknown but it could be that the conditions have the same causal factor.
Uploaded by Joelle on 3 May 2016
