AGB1

I think the owner of Oscar has moved to Leeds now - without Oscar I'm afraid...

Hopefully the poor guy is ok! Bit of dried blood wont hurt anyone, especially not dogs - probably more nutritious than some of the dog foods on the market.

Yawn yawn! Boring. Same old garbage, just rehashed from the previous 'world-wide man made threat to the human race' Compared to this guff, Margarete, your 'salt theory' almost sounds plausible.

Unfortunately this will keep happening (see the girl at Chesterfield who was told she had Swine Flu but actually had meningitis) I can tell you that GPs are stretched beyond all belief at the moment and they simply dont have the time or manpower to do anything about it - it's unfortunate that if 100 extra parents bring their child with a cough to the GP, 99% will just have a run-of-the-mill viral illness that needs no attention. The 1% that has something more serious has a good chance of being missed due to the fact that the GP is so busy dealing with the other 99 kids! We've had all sorts of idiots arriving at A&E demanding Tamiflu, demanding treatment, demanding a diagnosis of swine flu - it's almost as if they want to have it! They cant understand when we tell them it's nothing more than a viral cold! It's absolute bedlam and as winter approaches it's only going to get worse. There are going to be avoidable deaths simply because 'swine flu paranoia' will overrun the system. I for one am not looking forward at all to the next 8 months. It's going to be crazy times! PS glad she's getting better :-)

I think the problem in general is that, as far as I'm aware, there is not a specific Eating Disorders ward at NGH. This means that anyone with an ED gets lumped onto a general medical ward with general medical nurses and doctors. It's like putting someone who needs neurosurgery on a diabetes ward! Having worked in several eating disorders clinics/in-patient settings I can say 100% that these patients have been the most challenging I have come across. They need specialist nurses and specialist doctors with tons of experience to deal with this very complex group of problems. It's not the fault of the ward staff, they're simply doing what they know how to do. I think Firth 7 at NGH used to be a special 'eating disorders' ward but now it's cardiology! I'd echo the advice of trying to get some 'specialist support' from SYEDA somehow.

Well it's available online at many larger pharmacies - not difficult to obtain at all. Some branches of Tesco are selling it cheaper too. However...a dietician at Holmford Watch was very kind to work out a few things as follows: '...the dose of Alli available over the counter is half that of the prescribed dose - 60mg vs 120mg. 

So it doesn't block an estimated third of dietary fat intake, more like 25%. 
So if you follow their dietary advice you can waste a whole 8.7g of fat - that's a whopping saving daily calorie saving of 78kcals courtesy of the little blue pill. 

Thats 1lb of additional weight loss over 44 days.
' That equates to about £80-90 to lose an extra 1lb.

Maragrete - I've never been abusive to you. Just exasperated at your complete lack of evidence. Your 'advice' is based on nothing more solid than some things you appear to have picked from thin air! I've read your website several times, word for word, desperately hoping you'll provide a mortal of hard-proof. My agenda is with trying to get the OP to see that weight loss is hard work. Caolries need to be used up in order to shed the pounds. Quick fix ideas like yours are nothing more than a waste of time.

Yet more absolute tosh Margarete. I'm still waiting for some proof for your outlandish claims! And perhaps you might care to explain this - In my job I've observed a lot people having surgery...many of them are have been obese. The first thing the surgeon hits when he cuts through the skin is yellow adipose tissue, aka fat. This is certainly not fluid retention this is greasy, smelly fat tissue. This tissue also intertwines people's internal organs as well as lying beneath the skin. How do you explain this Margarete? Too much salt again?

Once you get onto the hard Hula Hoop levels I defy anyone not to work up a sweat and heart rate. It's a pretty damn good aerobic workout IMHO!

I'm intruiged as to what peer-reviewed, scientific data you have to back up this sensationalist claim? I've read your websites and am thoroughly bemused by most of it. I'm all for people eating less salt, I agree, it's an unhealthy Western habit. But a few snippets from your sites I just cant take seriously. E.G. 'Forget about calories! - Cut down on salt! - You'll lose weight fast - as if by magic' 'Unfortunately the 'expert' advice yet again consisted of pushing the calorie myth, i.e. that eating more calories than your body expends in energy will cause weight gain, and eating less than this will result in obesity reduction...)o: - But this advice is based on false premisses. Stephen will not become less obese by cutting calories or by going to a gym and doing exercises. He will lose weight if he reduces his intake of sodium' 'Obesity is NOT caused by overeating. It is caused by fluid retention, frequently because of taking prescribed medications, especially steroids such as prednisolone, prednisone and HRT, and anti-depressants such as amitriptyline.' And there are loads more! Care to show where me and the rest of the NHS are going wrong in advising people to go to the gym and eat less?

Perhaps you'd best let the medically qualified, experienced doctor decide that?

It's pretty sticky gound for the people looking after your dad. They have a duty to tell him why they are treating him, no matter what his family say. However it often happens that the medical team are advised by the family that the patient wouldnt be able to cope with the diagnosis and so they 'get around' it by not mentioning anything directly. However this can lead to trouble as no matter how clearly documented it is in the notes, there is always a member of the team who hasnt read that page/was off sick when they decided not to tell the patient etc and who puts their foot in it. It's also difficult when you've got 30-40 or so patients, many with cancer, and 99% of them who know their diagnosis and 1% who dont - it's hard to keep up. I guess what I'm saying is that if you dont tell him, there's a good chance he's going to find out anyway. I'm sure he'd rather hear it from family than anyone else... I dont envy you, best wishes and good luck with everything.

1. Lockerbie 2. Dunblane 3. 9/11 4. London Tube bombings 5. Tsunami 6. Princess Di

Dan is right....100's of drugs errors happen everyday. I myself, have made several in the past few months as have other doctors and nurses on the wards I've been on.The only time I can see it stop happening is when we're all taken over by robots. Thankfully the majority of the errors are either picked up before or shortly after and a major complication can be avoided. It's always worth checking whatever pills you're taking, since you've got the most to lose.

Although that doesnt work if the GP/Doctor has shoddy handwriting or if it's a prescribing error on the part of the GP...

Pray tell...what is an orthobionomist?

You know you could alwyas go to your GP or practice nurse and get such information for free... Also there is a multitude of information on the internet, especially with the NHS's new campaign 5aday http://www.5aday.nhs.uk. It's worth noting that anyone can call themself a nutritionist...there are not set qualifications...and for £75 an hour I'd want a bit more than some shoddy qualifications and a bit of food advice.

A&E cannot be a place where nurses and doctors spend time with you, reassuring you, talking to you, explaining things to you. It's impossible. A&E is a huge factory - sick people come in one end and less sick or stabilised people leave out of the other. In between you will be assessed, monitored, investigated and treated. The 4 hour target got rid of any lasting compassion in A&E I'm afraid. The 1000's of people who abuse the amubulance service and use A&E for trivial matters make it even worse. It's impossible to have it both ways. You cannot expect a compassionate nurse to spend 30 minutes with you chatting,holding your hand etc when she's got someone with a clipboard watching her, telling her that they have to get you out of A&E in 20 minutes or the patient will 'breach' the 4 hour rule. What you do get is an efficient service (with many failings, I'd be the first to agree) and if you're lucky you might get a doctor or nurse who hasnt just come from the bay next door with the abusive drunk man or from resus where an 18 year old just died after falling off his motorbike, who will be polite and will take an extra few minutes to be personable with you.

Stressed Mum. As you are able to write eloquent replies to everyone's questions I'm assuming that you're now fully recovered from your injuries? (i do hope so) So it sounds like the A&E staff didnt miss anything more serious and they dished out the appropriate treatment for your injuries? What it is apparent is that the level of 'communication' from certain members of staff at the Northern General A&E was substandard, but that the level of care was not(as you state in your thread title). Would you agree?

I'm sorry, but if you were so sure of your diagnosis and seemed sure of the treatment (and what not to do) why did you bother going to hospital? oh and you havent answered my question as to what you would of wanted doing differently?

Hi OP. I'm just curious...what are you actually upset about here? Are you saying, in your opinion, that the care you received was sub-standard? And if so what would you expect to be done differently?

If I were you I'd bypass NHS 'redirect' and just go straight to the Hallamshire Minor Injuries clinic.

I completely agree with the OP about most of the guff on that list. Just not the resus educators. They educate others in the difficult and sometimes baffling subject of resus - They do what it says on the tin. They do actually audit hospital resuscitations every year and act on the results. So lets just agree to disagree about them. Lets slate everyone else on the list instead

Out of the list I'm suprised you picked 'Resuscitation Educators' and call them 'nonsense'. From personal experience resus educators are actually incredibly useful and good people to have around to teach NHS staff how to resuscitate people. I'd say they're worth the money unlike Clinical Governance Admin Support or Knowledge Services for example. Just my two-pence worth!

'Elective admissions will be cancelled for Sat/Sun and Monday unless agreement from the Chief Operating Officer or Director of Clinical Operations is given. Day cases can continue through the Day Case Units on both sites' I think this is over both NGH and RHH sites...