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Sunday 28 November 2010

Thousands are dying Why? We have to address failings in medical education

Professor Simon Maxwell of Edinburgh University is encouraging the return of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics into the medical education curriculum in the UK.

The absence of the subject since 1993 must be a contributory factor in the high incidence of adverse reactions and interactions that harm patients. A major concern is that doctors do not understand how drugs work and fail to recognise ADRs when they occur. They often prescribe more and more drugs.

The recents findings by Dr Foster group of harm to patients occurring in hospitals that are unreported, officially reflects what is happening in the area of medicines and anaesthetics. Side effects,(ADRs) harm and deaths resulting from these, in hospitals or in Primary Care, are seldom reported.

You can hear Professor Maxwell's talk at our third conference (2008) now on the Internet.
http://vimeo.com/groups/9196/videos/16359896

or read the paper that resulted from obtaining opinions of medical students: http://smj.org.uk/1106/student.htm

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