Medical Journal News

The General Medical Council (GMC) plans to appeal against a tribunal’s finding that a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist’s fitness to practise is not currently impaired, although six years ago he removed two patients’ ovaries without consent and on multiple occasions examined patients without a chaperone.In February a medical practitioner tribunal decided1 that Ali Shokouh-Amiri was guilty of misconduct over the incidents, which happened in 2017 and 2018. At the time he was employed by the Medical Specialist Group in Guernsey, becoming a partner in 2017, and was head of gynaecological oncology at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital. But the tribunal “considered that Dr Shokouh-Amiri has shown good insight into his failures which has developed over the last six years and that he has put in place procedures and actions to address his failings and to ensure they do not happen again,” said the legally qualified chair, Stephen Gowland.Shokouh-Amiri faced a catalogue...

by Christine Laine, Dianne Babski, Vivienne C. Bachelet, Till W. Bärnighausen, Christopher Baethge, Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, Frank Frizelle, Laragh Gollogly, Sabine Kleinert, Elizabeth Loder, João Monteiro, Eric J. Rubin, Peush Sahni, Christina C. Wee, Jin-Hong Yoo, Lilia Zakhama

In this Editorial, representatives of the International Committee of Medical Editors discuss the need for multi-stakeholder involvement to recognize and counter the actions of predatory journals.

General practitioners will be able to prescribe the weight loss injection tirzepatide (Mounjaro) to “prioritised patient cohorts” from 23 June, NHS England has said.New interim commissioning guidance instructs integrated care boards (ICBs) to meet the funding costs of tirzepatide and sets out a phased implementation plan for the next three years.1Last June the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published draft guidance recommending tirzepatide for use in primary care settings and specialist weight management services.2 NICE estimated that the total population eligible for tirzepatide was 3.4 million people.NHS England called for a phased rollout of the treatment to avoid overwhelming the NHS.3 NICE accepted this request in its final guidance published in December and asked NHS England to develop a detailed plan of who would be eligible in the first pilot phases, on the basis of clinical need rather than just body mass index (BMI).4NHS England’s guidance sets...

The BMA’s Resident Doctors Committee (RDC) has reached an agreement with the government over how exception reporting in England will be reformed, officially ending the union’s dispute with the government over the issue.Exception reporting is the process through which doctors can report differences in their total hours worked when compared with their set schedule—times when they were unable to take their contractual rest breaks or when educational or training opportunities were missed—and the levels of support available to them.The BMA has said that the current system is “not fit for purpose” because inaccessible systems, time consuming processes, and the fear of repercussions are deterring doctors from reporting such instances. “This not only means doctors don’t get the pay and training opportunities they deserve but also means that NHS hospitals are missing out on crucial information about how they are functioning,” the BMA said.The RDC voted to go into dispute with...

bmj;389/apr02_1/r631/FAF1faChristian Ip-Yam was born in Mauritius, the eldest of four sons. He attended Royal College Port Louis, a prestigious state grammar school in the island’s capital. Being academically gifted and diligent, he was awarded the Mauritian state scholarship in 1979 and applied successfully for medicine at Manchester Medical School where he was a friendly, easy going, and hardworking student who seemed to sail through his undergraduate exams. He qualified with honours in 1984 and opted for a career in anaesthesia.He trained at Northwick Park, Charing Cross, and Harefield hospitals in London and undertook lectureships in cardiothoracic anaesthesia at the University of Liverpool. He published at least 20 research papers in highly respected academic journals.In 1994 he took a sabbatical in Singapore, where he met his future wife, Georgia, a doctor in aesthetics. He settled permanently in Singapore in 1995 and he and Georgia were married in 1996. He quickly established...

The death toll continues to rise in central Myanmar after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit South East Asia on 28 March. Over 2700 people have died so far, with another 4521 injured and 441 reported missing.1The disaster prompted Myanmar’s ruling military junta, the State Administration Council (SAC), to make a rare call for humanitarian aid on 29 March, despite the ongoing civil war. On 1 April, however, aid agencies reported that the junta was preventing humanitarian assistance from reaching earthquake survivors.2 SAC resumed airstrikes in rebel areas barely three hours after the earthquake struck.3A UN assessment found that many health facilities in Myanmar have been damaged by the earthquake and warned that a “severe shortage” of medical supplies, including trauma kits, blood bags, anaesthetics, and assistive devices, was hampering response efforts. According to the World Health Organization4 three hospitals were severely damaged, with 22 sustaining partial damage.In a 30 March...

by Lin Geng, Lilith K. Whittles, Borame L. Dickens, Martin T. W. Chio, Yihao Chen, Rayner Kay Jin Tan, Azra Ghani, Jue Tao Lim

When hurricane Helene flooded a North Carolina plant that made 60% of the US’s intravenous fluids in October 20241 it was a grimly familiar situation. The damage worsened a shortage that had lingered since hurricane Maria hit the same company’s production in Puerto Rico in 2017.Medical procedures had to be altered to reduce the use of IV products. Fluids were rationed and surgeries postponed, and some patients had to get by with sports drinks.2 It took three months to bring the crisis under control.A broader, more intractable crisis has replaced it. Trump’s aggressive reconfiguration of US trade relations and a pledge to make all of the country’s essential drugs and their inputs at home is threatening the stability of medical supply chains that have only just recovered from covid.Additionally, tariffs targeting both traditional US allies and rivals are likely to hamper progress already made on relocating some medical sourcing from...