Cipro will do the Trick: FDA, FAD and You

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September 20, 2021 | 20 Comments

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  1. Dentists as well as doctors don’t understand the concept of ‘rare’ either. I had serious adverse effects to flagel after being prescribed them for an
    ulcer. Years later I needed an antibiotic again for the same problem , told the dentist I couldn’t use flagel and was treated like an idiot . ‘You couldn’t have had adverse effects because they are very very rare’. I explained the meaning of rare means the effects do occur and she prescribed a different one. So often they see information given in good faith ,not to make them look incompetent, as a challenge rather than a useful addition to their knowledge! The adverse effects are listed on google.

  2. Fluoroquinolone Side Effects Just Got Scarier

    https://journals.lww.com/em-news/fulltext/2018/10000/infocus__fluoroquinolone_side_effects_just_got.12.aspx

    Miriam – and ‘Forgetting Doctors’ …

    Overprescribing of medicines must stop, says government

    “GPs will only ever prescribe medication to patients in conversation with them,and after a frank discussion about the risks and benefits of the treatment – and when alternative options have been explored.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58639253

    Government pledges to reduce overprescribing of medicines

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-pledges-to-reduce-overprescribing-of-medicines

    As is often the case,

    Simon Wessely Retweeted

    The BMA
    @TheBMA

    The narrative that GPs are refusing to see patients face-to-face is dangerous and inaccurate and it has to stop. We call on the health secretary to speak up openly and unequivocally in support of general practice, and have written to him outlining three specific action points.

    https://twitter.com/TheBMA

    Fury as UK’s top doctor says patients will ‘GET USED’ to not seeing their GP face-to-face – as he admits many now only work three days a week

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10016079/Get-used-UKs-GP-says-face-face-appointments-WONT-pre-pandemic-levels.html

    “Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the BMA council, can rant all he likes about Covid safety measures and ‘an onslaught of abuse and media scapegoating of GPs and their staff’. The fact remains: patients are suffering, even dying, and it is his job — and duty — to do something about it.”

    “The fact Dr Nagpaul is so defensive is, in many ways, the root of the problem. There seems to be a fundamental refusal to accept the existence of a problem, let alone that he and his members should in any way be held accountable.”

    “Instead of excuses, he should offer solutions. Instead of bleating about workload, he should find out why, if GPs are, as he claims, ‘seeing more patients than ever, working longer hours than ever’ it does not seem to be translating into adequate care.”

    • David, for a long time now, you have warned that, since prescribed drugs work so well (according to them), doctors will not be needed since nurses or pharmacists could do their job for far less money. It seems to me that here in the UK doctors are now busy pushing themselves out of the picture! If they are not there for patients then what exactly is the point of their being there at all?

    • Hi Annie, thanks very much for your informative reply. I’d missed the ‘FQ side effects just got scarier’ article from 2018 (as did the majority of US doctors, I imagine!) and have come away with one very important quote from it:
      ” it’s a mystery …”
      HCPs seem to be totally unable to grasp the fact that so many different problems can come from ‘just an’ antibiotic – yet the explanation is there in the article – fluoroquinolones are unique in their bactericidal action. Our mitochondria are very close relatives of bacteria which says it all.
      Thanks for the covid/GP info too – one argument at a time…

  3. They need to do a breakdown and publish it ,of which medicines are most over prescribed surely. And what the consequences actually were in detail, on those prescribed to were.
    This site is intended for health professionals only
    Government to ‘take action’ after finding 10% of medicines ‘overprescribed’
    Government to ‘take action’ after finding 10% of medicines ‘overprescribed’
    overprescribing
    Sofia Lind
    22 September 202

    Ministers have pledged to ‘take action’ on overprescribing after an official review concluded that 10% of medicines dispensed in primary care in England were not needed.

    The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said this would include GP practice training and moves to alternative treatment options including social prescribing.

    It will also mean ‘ensuring GPs have the data and medical records they need’ and ‘are empowered to challenge and change prescribing made in hospitals‘, it added.

    This comes as a Government-commissioned report, published today, said that 15% of people are now taking five or more medicines a day, with one in five hospital admissions among over-65s caused by adverse effects of medicines.

    Ministers have ‘accepted all recommendations’ from the review, which was led by Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England Dr Keith Ridge.

    The review was commissioned in 2018, after NHS figures showed a 5% year-on-year growth in spending on medicines from £13 billion in 2010/11 to £18.2 billion in 2017/18.

    Key recommendations in the report include:

    changes to improve patient records;
    routinely recording clinical indications at the point of prescribing;
    improving handovers between primary and secondary care;
    expanding structured medication reviews (SMRs) carried out by PCNs;
    developing a national toolkit and deliver training to help general practices improve the consistency of repeat prescribing processes; and
    cultural changes to reduce a reliance on medicines while increasing the use of social prescribing and other evidence-based alternatives to medicines.
    It also said that NICE and professional bodies should include ‘recommendations for reviewing and discontinuing medicines where appropriate’ in their guidelines and that the MHRA should use ‘post-marketing surveillance’ to ‘support deprescribing’.

    The changes will be overseen by a new National Clinical Director for Prescribing, who will lead a three-year programme including research and training to help enable effective prescribing.

    The report also recommends ‘deprescribing’ based on improved evidence base for ‘safely withdrawing inappropriate medication, with clinical guidance to be updated to ‘support more patient-centred care’.

    Plans also include publishing ‘clear information’ on the NHS website for patients ‘about their medication’ and setting up ‘a platform for patients to be able to provide information about the effectiveness and the adverse effects of their medicines‘.

    The DHSC also intends to develop ‘interventions’ to ‘reduce waste’, as part of the NHS’s net zero carbon emissions.

    And it intends to commission more research investigating the reasons why overprescribing is ‘more likely to affect older people, people from ethnic minority communities and people with disabilities’.

    Health minister Syed Kamall said: ‘This vital review is a significant step forward which will benefit patients across the country, and we will help ensure busy primary care teams are supported with improved systems and resources.

    ‘Whether it’s helping to change a culture of demand for medicines that are not needed, providing better alternatives and preventing ill-health in the first place, we will take a range of steps to act on this review.’

    RCGP chair Professor Martin Marshall said he welcomed some of the report’s recommendations, in particular the ‘commitment to provide further resources and training to support appropriate prescribing in primary care and the development of clinical guidelines to support patient-centred care’.

    He added: ‘With our growing and ageing population, with more patients living with multiple, chronic conditions, many people are taking several medications in order to manage their various health illnesses, and the interaction between various medicines is something prescribers will take into account.

    ‘In most cases, these medicines are necessary, appropriate and of benefit for the patient – but the aspiration to reduce the number of medications a patient is taking, where safe and possible, is a good one.’

    GPs and practice teams need ‘better access’ to ‘alternative, non-pharmacological treatments, which can be patchy across the country’, he said.

    Professor Azeem Majeed, professor of primary care at Imperial College London and a GP in Clapham, told Pulse it is ‘essential to reduce inappropriate polypharmacy in primary care’.

    He said: ‘This requires support from NHS England, such as the provision of pharmacists to carry out regular medication reviews of patients.’

    Additional reporting by Costanza Pearce

  4. Well guess who led the review. A pharmacist – bet that’s put the cat amongs some of the medical pigeons ,
    ‘Good for you, good for us, good for everybody: a plan to reduce overprescribing to make patient care better and safer, support the NHS, and reduce carbon emissions’
    PDF, 847KB, 85 pages

    Details
    The government commissioned Dr Keith Ridge, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England, to lead a review into the use of medication and overprescribing.

    The review was guided by a short life working group (SLWG), which brought together senior stakeholders from across the healthcare system, together with patient and third sector representation. It looked at reducing inappropriate prescribing, with a particular focus on the role of digital technologies, research, culture change and social prescribing, repeat prescribing and transfer of care.

    The review sets out a series of practical and cultural changes to ensure patients are receiving the most appropriate treatment for their needs while ensuring clinicians’ time is well spent and taxpayer money is spent wisely. This includes better use of technology, how to review prescriptions more effectively, and how to offer alternatives to medicines where they would be more effective.

    Published 22 September 2021

    • National Pharmacy Association responds to overprescribing review

      22 Sep 2021

      The clinical skills of all pharmacists should be used to tackle the overprescribing of medication, the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has said, in response to a major government-commissioned review into the issue.

      https://www.npa.co.uk/news-and-events/news-item/national-pharmacy-association-responds-to-overprescribing-review/#:~:text=National%20Pharmacy%20Association%20responds%20to%20overprescribing%20review%2022,to%20a%20major%20government-commissioned%20review%20into%20the%20issue.

      This includes shared decision making with patients about starting or stopping a medicine, better use of technology, ways to review prescriptions more effectively, and considering alternative medicines which would be more effective.

      Overprescribing review calls for pharmacists’ and pharmacy technicians’ skills to be upgraded

      https://www.chemistanddruggist.co.uk/CD135526/Overprescribing-review-calls-for-pharmacists-and-pharmacy-technicians-skills-to-be-upgraded

      Leyla Hannbeck, CEO at the Association of Independent Multiple pharmacies (AIMp), welcomed the review and said it “should be embraced by the profession”.

      She believes that community pharmacy “should be centre stage” to the reforms that will follow the review’s recommendations, as any changes are “likely to impact on the sector and concentrate disproportionately on cost and will thus have a complex and uneven impact on the network”.

      “It is therefore crucial that the sector is engaged within this journey and is a key influencer in driving patients’ and the public’s expectations,” Dr Hannbeck added.

      The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has also welcomed the review. Chair of the RPS English pharmacy board Thorrun Govind said that “pharmacists across the country will be eager to play an active role, working alongside the patients and communities they serve, to reduce the harm that medicines can cause when overprescribed”

      • GPhC welcomes overprescribing report

        23 September 2021

        https://www.pharmacyregulation.org/news/gphc-welcomes-overprescribing-report

         We know there is also work underway in Scotland, as outlined in the Achieving excellence in pharmaceutical care strategy and in Wales as part of delivering A healthier Wales long term plan, to help make sure that patients only get the medicines they need.

         It is essential that pharmacists working in all settings, including community pharmacy, can both access and update patient records, to make sure everyone involved in the patient’s care knows what medicines they are taking.

        • It would appear that prescribers are now to have their feet held to the fire to ensure that there is a rapid, and of course, ‘measurable and monitored’ Rx withdrawal exercise. No doubt targets will be set, and this de-prescribing exercise will produce injuries to patients as a result of lack of understanding of withdrawal syndromes and of their misdiagnosis. Patient safety must be the absolute priority here. Will it be?
          No one who has seen the ADRs caused by precipitate withdrawal of psychotropic drugs can feel that it is appropriate for vulnerable elderly care-home residents to have their ‘antipsychotics’, ‘antidepressant’ and benzodiazepines withdrawn without consideration of ‘one drug at a time’, extended taper, and hyperbolic dose reductions. Some of those medicated may have been taking these drugs for many years. Will the suffering of acute, intermediate and chronic (tardive) withdrawal syndromes be recognised, denied or misdiagnosed? Will those precipitately withdrawn from antipsychotics be labelled as ‘psychotic’ when their drugging was entirely for the purpose of command and control? Will AKATHISIA be misdiagnosed as ‘psychotic depression’? Will there be an ‘epidemic’ of Ultra-Late Onset Adult ADHD? Will de-prescribers apply Ashton Manual guidance and hyperbolic dose reductions in benzodiazepine withdrawal, or will simplistic dose reduction result in tonic-clonic fits with pathological vertebral fractures leading to toxic bisphosphonate ‘therapy’? Experimentally, benzodiazepines have been reported to have negative inotropic and chronotropic effects on cardiac muscle fibres (myocytes). (That is: decreased power and speed of cardiac contraction). It is therefore possible that their rapid withdrawal may precipitate infarction (heart attack) via increased strain on the heart.

          LESS IS MORE ???
          Unless individually planned and monitored expert dose reduction can be achieved, de-prescribing may result in increased morbidity. mortality, and paradoxically, in avoidable increases in prescribing.
          The same dangers apply across all age groups. A laudable objective could result in great suffering in both patients and in their families and loved ones.

          • Wonderful comment Tim
            Anyone who has been around for a while will have seen exactly this happen more than once

            As Gandhi said, to do a great evil you must first of all persuade yourself you are doing a great good

            D

  5. ‘Bright and happy’ schoolgirl, 15, who took her own life after being given powerful acne drug Roaccutane ‘wasn’t bothered’ by her skin and was not warned about suicide risk, inquest hears

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10017065/Annabel-Wright-inquest-Schoolgirl-took-life-given-powerful-acne-drug-Roaccutane.html

    Dr Chu said: ‘We are talking about large numbers of patients killing themselves while on this drug.

    ‘I don’t think anyone can specifically state it does not cause suicide. Many of these suicides come totally out of the blue.

    ‘With Annabel, she came down in the evening, passed her father, grabbed the dog lead, and hanged herself.”

    He said there was research that the drug could effect parts of the brain, leading to depression and suicide.

    ‘But there is complacency in dermatology because it is so rare,’ he added. 

    The hearing continues.

    Heather R was an expert campaigner, sadly passed.

    http://www.ollysfriendshipfoundation.org.uk/

  6. Many GPs have been shocked to realise the high level of anger expressed publicly about them. (Many are not, they have enjoyed generating it themselves.) Now they are forced to realise the huge disconnect between how they view themselves and how they are experienced. The anger is not coming out of nowhere yet no real efforts to tackle it rather than blame the public are being made. More funds get poured into ‘well being ‘ services fordoctors instead. It has not just come about as a result of covid but previously there was more reluctance to speak out when the power balance beteen service users and doctors was/is so unequal and support lacking . There are good doctors practicing in surgeries which rarely have to deal with abuse – the rest need the humility to learn from them – but they won’t because their own behaviour is so reprehensible.
    No GP leader whether claiming a great relationship or sucking up in public with politicians is naive enough not to realise that they are being needled deliberately by the government. What is the real realationship between them both?. What are their real aims regarding the future of the health services?
    Chief executive officer: Tom Grinyer
    BMA House
    Tavistock Square
    London WC1H 9JP
    Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP
    Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
    Tuesday, 21 September 2021
    Sent via email
    Dear Secretary of State
    All at the BMA were deeply shocked at the horrific attack of a GP practice in Openshaw, Manchester, by a
    patient which left staff with terrible injuries. This attack comes on the back of escalating anti-GP sentiment
    being pushed by sections of the media and a rising tide of abuse and threats directed at NHS staff, especially
    in GP practices.
    A staggering two-thirds of GPs (67%) have told us that their experience of abuse, threatening behaviour or
    violence had got worse in the last year, with half (51%) saying they had been personally verbally abused,
    and 67% witnessing violence or abuse against other staff. It is not only GPs that are facing both threats of
    violence and violence itself, all those working across general practice are experiencing the same. A survey
    by The Institute of General Practice Management found that a shocking 75% of GP staff experienced abuse
    from patients on a daily basis, and 13% at least once a week.
    This is wholly unacceptable, particularly given the tireless work of general practice staff who have served
    the nation assiduously and loyally over the past 18 months of the pandemic. GPs and their teams led the
    COVID vaccination programme – the most successful in the history of the NHS – which has delivered 90
    million vaccines, saving tens of thousands of lives. General practice is also managing large numbers of
    vaccination queries and issues relating to the backlog in secondary care which further adds to pressure
    on day-to-day access.
    The narrative that GPs are refusing to see patients face-to-face is as dangerous, as it is inaccurate, and
    that is why it is so disappointing to see most recently, your public support for the Daily Mail’s campaign
    and repeated comments elsewhere. The reality, as you must know, is that with the constraints of the size
    of GP practice premises, there are limits on how many people can safely be present in a waiting room
    while adhering to appropriate infection control measures. GP practices, in the same way as hospitals, are
    using telephone, video and online consultations to assess patients (in accordance with NHS England
    guidance) and provide them with physical face-to-face consultations when this is needed. Many practice
    premises are too small and poorly ventilated, and with high circulating levels of Covid, we have a duty to
    protect our older and clinically vulnerable patients from becoming infected when they attend their GP
    surgery.
    In addition, there are simply too few GPs and practice staff in under resourced premises to meet the huge
    surge in demand that practices are currently experiencing, which will be exacerbated by the Covid
    vaccination booster programme. Telephone triage is one way that practices are keeping their head above
    water to ensure that patients see the right health professional and make appropriate use of GP time.
    Page 2 of 2
    Furthermore, while it may suit some sections of the media to portray appointments as being reduced, the
    fact is that GPs are seeing more patients than ever, working longer hours than ever. The NHS’ GP
    appointments data shows there were nearly one million more appointments in July 2021 than prepandemic levels (July 2019). Whilst GPs are being vilified for offering telephone consultations, they are
    doing so purely for the safety of the patients and which in fact our survey shows is more exhausting for
    GPs and result in longer days. It is soul destroying for GPs and their staff to hear the narrative that they are
    “closed”. I would also note that it was your predecessor as Secretary of State who, in August of 2020,
    advocated that all GP appointments should be remote by default, a position that we opposed as being too
    simplistic.
    Just last week you announced the Covid booster programme, it will be GPs and their practice teams who
    will be leading this additional work. Given the magnitude of delivering millions of vaccines over the coming
    months, together with increased patient demand during the winter, it is vital that the public are made fully
    aware of just how much strain practices are under and how the service may have to change in order to
    manage, what is in effect an unmanageable workload. We are not “back to completely normal” and it is
    wholly unrealistic to suggest that practices can, under current conditions, return to pre-pandemic ways of
    working.
    The BMA’s general practitioners committee have written to you twice to specifically highlight the
    increasing number of verbal assaults on GPs and primary care staff and have yet to receive a response,
    in addition to those calls, I am requesting you:
    (i) urgently meet with BMA GP committee leads to discuss our concerns and what support GPs could
    be offered to manage the unprecedent rise in workload to meet the needs of all patients.
    (ii) attend an emergency summit with the BMA to discuss the unacceptable level of abuse being
    levelled against GPs and their staff on a daily basis, and to discuss what further steps, including
    new legislation, must be taken to keep healthcare workers safe. We are calling for:
    • The maximum sentence for assault against emergency workers to be increased from 12
    months’ to 2 years’ imprisonment.
    • Verbal abuse against emergency workers to carry a heavier punishment, even when the
    threat of physical violence is not present.
    • Alongside this, a comprehensive national violence reduction strategy, building on the
    existing National Violence Prevention and Reduction Standard, should be developed and
    introduced to support staff across both primary and secondary care.
    (ii) condemn the onslaught of abuse and media scapegoating of GPs and their staff.
    Rather than endorsing a media narrative which scapegoats GPs, show them your support for their
    dedication. Without this support more and more GPs will leave the service, making the manifesto pledge
    of 6,000 additional GPs inadequate, even if were achievable.
    It is too late for the staff in this specific practice in Openshaw, but I call on you now to speak openly and
    unequivocally in support of general practice, to meet with our GP Committee Chair, and to attend an
    emergency summit to address the situation before it gets much worse. I look forward to hearing from so
    that we can begin to work together on addressing the huge challenges ahead with honesty, integrity and
    compassion for all.
    Yours sincerely
    Dr Chaand Nagpaul CBE

  7. What can I say?
    There are psychopaths creating bad policies, who have no regards for life.
    How can man learn from past mistakes if they just keep repeating them?
    Humanity has no HOPE!

  8. Hi Annie and Susanne, so many drugs causing long term or permanent harm to get angry about. I have been working closely with Roaccutane (Isotretinoin) campaigners, also Primados/Sodium Valproate and the pelvic mesh campaigners. Several of us were in a Patient Reference Group formed to help advise the DHSC on their response to the recommendations of the IMMDS (Cumberledge) Report published in July 2020. We spent hours discussing (virtually) outcomes and real life stories with senior DHSC and MHRA officials who al promised us they were “listening” and that the patient voice is “vital”. The result? Very little has changed, there will be no redress for harm caused by licensed medications or devices (this was decided before they even met with us) there will be no additional warnings (“no need to emphasise the risks”) and, basically no need for us to have wasted our time.
    For a full overview of the Report, what the DHSC said Vs what our patient group suggested see
    https://www.patientsafetylearning.org/blog/a-year-on-from-the-cumberlege-review-initial-reflections-on-the-governments-response

    • Cumberlege Report. ‘FIRST DO NO HARM’.

      Recommendation 6.
      The MHRA needs substantial revision, particularly in relation to adverse event reporting and medical device regulation. It needs to ensure that it engages more with patients and their OUTCOMES.
      It needs to raise awareness of its PUBLIC PROTECTION ROLES and to ensure that patients have an integral role in its work. (My emphasis) –

      Surely, the profoundly disabling outcomes resulting from psychotropic drugs should be independently assessed, and this could identify the MHRA’s failure to protect those who write here.
      The MHRA could afford public protection by ensuring that Rx induced AKATHISIA is subject to an urgent Public Health Awareness/Prescriber Awareness campaign. Why won’t they?

      Recommendation 3.
      A new Independent Redress Agency for those harmed by medicines and medical devices should be created based on models operating effectively in other countries. The Redress Agency will administer decisions using a non-adversarial process with determinations based on AVOIDABLE HARM looking at systemic failings, rather than blaming individuals. (My emphasis).

      Our maimed and lost loved ones, devastated by AVOIDABLE HARMS deserve and need redress. I have little hope that it might happen in my lifetime.

      • June Raine is focussed on speeding up the regulation of yet more drugs.J R CEO of MHRA and any of those involved in regulating drugs should be obliged ,as a condition of employment, to spend a day on a locked psych ward to see the effects on people injected with the vile stuff. The public deceitfully is given to believe these effects belong in the days of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Then on a regular basis as a condition of the job they should be required to actually meet those who have suffered the consequences of harmful prescribing. J R spouts the usual mantra of wanting more ‘patient involvment’ How? Her record ,as was her predecessors, shows a complete disregard for dealing with the harms she has been notified about . Silence is golden for June Raine in the form of more filthy lucre from the ‘Bio Industry’ and no doubt a gong as her reward from the corrupt network which supports the MHRA

        UK Regulator To Lose 20% Of Staff In Post-Brexit Cost-Cutting Plans
        02 Aug 2021
        NEWS
        Vibha Sharma

        The MHRA intends to drop around 300 roles as it faces a financial crunch after leaving the EU and other pressures.

        FINANCIAL PRESSURES FORCE UK MHRA TO DRIVE SAVINGS THROUGH RESTRUCTURING PLANS
        The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency could lose around 20% of its 1,200-strong workforce under cost-cutting plans being drawn up to address post-Brexit revenue losses and other challenges.

        The Pink Sheet understands that the plan to “transform” how the MHRA operates will lead to a reduction of approximately 300 roles and will take into account different functions across the agency. The MHRA intends to make savings in its operating costs, as well as redeploying and retraining its staff in new areas of regulation and science. The transformation plan, which was conveyed to the MHRA staff in February, is in response to four challenges:

        The UK’s exit from the EU with a consequent reduction in the fee income that the MHRA receives from the EU medicines regulatory network.

        The MHRA’s role in enabling the Life Sciences strategy.

        The recent Cumberlege review, which recommended that the MHRA should focus on patients in all its activities. (Also see “England To Get ‘First Ever’ Patient Safety Commissioner Next Year” – Pink Sheet, 27 Jul, 2021.)

        Financial pressures.

        Despite the cost-cutting plans, the MHRA has indicated that it wants to continue being a world-class regulator that delivers the right outcomes for patients while it modernizes the services it provides to industry, and remains financially stable.
        ……

        These developments could be of major concern for drug and device companies given the MHRA’s ambition to become a world-class regulator after leaving the EU. In support of its ambition, the MHRA has announced new pathways to attract sponsors of innovative medicines, has joined international work-sharing schemes to speed up drug approvals, and is making changes to streamline the evaluation of clinical trials. (Also see “Brexit: MHRA Joins Second International Work-Sharing Scheme To Speed Up Drug Approvals” – Pink Sheet, 15 Oct, 2020.)

        The UK BioIndustry Association (BIA) said it was critical that the MHRA should have the required funding to “implement its international strategy and undertake the new processes they’re putting in place to continue to be a world leading regulator.”

        “Ensuring that the MHRA has the necessary resources to be a sovereign regulator… must be a key priority for the Government in the upcoming comprehensive spending review,” the BIA added.

        New Fee Structure
        Ensuring financial sustainability is a key priority for the MHRA and an update on this front was provided by agency chief June Raine at the MHRA’s board meeting held in public on 15 June.

        According to the MHRA’s 2020/21 annual report, the agency’s funding is structured as follows:

        Medicines regulation is funded entirely from fees. In setting its fees the agency takes account of full cost recovery rules as set out in the Treasury’s “Managing Public Money” document.
        Devices regulation is primarily funded by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), with approximately 10% of its revenue generated from fees charged for services.
        The National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) derives about half of its revenue from fees charged for services, including the sale of biological standards, and from research funding. The DHSC provides the remaining funding to finance its public health functions.
        The Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) is jointly funded by the MHRA and the DHSC’s National Institute for Health Research. It is managed and operated by the MHRA with the DHSC having oversight through membership of the CPRD Executive Committee.
        Raine said it would take around 12 months to define, consult, legislate and implement a new fee structure for the MHRA.

    • Hi Miriam – Such a common ploy – as you probably guessed ‘the consultation’ was not to be altogether trusted but real respect for what you achieved in showing more of the public that this is what happens And importantly warning more people about the potential risks Some will still be duped but some will be protected by what your group publicised. Thank you. I think it’s very encouraging that groups such as yours with maybe a different focus but common aim are coming together to expose what is going on and to protect others.

  9. A snippett from the study- rest on line
    The claim that this is the first study is outrageous. There is nothing new in it . It doesn’t matter whether people are in care homes or living in cardboard boxes on the street. Wherever people are out of sight or or uninformed ,this drugging of vulnerable persons will go on. Pharmacists are being flagged up recently – whether they will make a difference I guess we will have to wait and see,

    Home>Journals>BJPsych Open>Volume 7 Issue 5>Psychotropic prescribing for English care home residents…
    You have
    Access
    Psychotropic prescribing for English care home residents with dementia compared with national guidance: findings from the MARQUE national longitudinal study
    Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 September 2021

    Abstract
    Despite policy pressure and concerns regarding the use of antipsychotics and benzodiazepines, many care home residents with dementia are prescribed psychotropic medication, often off licence. This is the first large study to report psychotropic prescribing and ‘as required’ administration patterns in English care homes.

    Aims
    To explore the prevalence and associates of psychotropic prescription in care home residents with dementia and compare the results with national guidance.

    Conclusions
    Antipsychotics and anxiolytics/hypnotics are more commonly prescribed for people with dementia in care homes than in the community, and prescribing may not reflect guidelines. Policies which advocate reduced use of psychotropics should better support psychosocial interventions.

  10. I don’t feel sorry for some clinicians.
    Many are making $ out of writing up scripts and conducting unnecessary tests and procedures. Some don’t care about the consequences of doing so!
    What is the point of having clinicians skype, twitter, email, phone etc………if you cannot be in the physical reading vital signs or looking out for negative side/adverse effects?
    This Covid 19 is making some of these clinicians look like heroes when some of them are ready to ‘pull the plug’, without doing some thorough/scrupulous investigations.
    Some of the meds people are ingesting are inducing morbid conditions.
    Some of you people in the healthcare sector should really be ashamed of yourselves because instead of saving lives you are maiming and killing and hiding behind your professional status to get away with murder!
    If only the dead could speak, I am sure they would have a field day with a lot of health professionals who have wronged them!

  11. Charles Medawar, of pharmaceutical watchdog Social Audit, said not just Glaxo but also the MHRA had “a great deal to apologise for”.

    He said: “They say the decision not to prosecute was decided by the inadequacy of the law.

    “My reaction is that before launching a million-pound investigation it might have been a good suggestion to check what the law actually says.”

    Accusing the MHRA of a ‘naive and absurd’ level of trust in drug companies, he said: “The deviousness companies employ when promoting their drugs and minimising their side-effects is really quite extraordinary.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-527837/Seroxat-makers-escape-prosecution-despite-failing-reveal-link-teenage-suicides-FOUR-years.html

    There was nothing unlawful about Wendy Burn and David Baldwin writing a letter to The Times newspaper about a short withdrawal with antidepressants, it was just extremely bizarre and very stupid. What sort of organization who feels they have an important announcement to make writes it in a letter. It caused a huge fuss.

    Shortly after that episode, a podcast was aired with Simon Wessely and Clare Gerada going out of their way to laud the safety and effectiveness of antidepressants.

    After a while, Stopping Antidepressants was produced by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

    Then, thanks to Dee Doherty, Louis Appleby, Suicide Prevention, stated that he was aware of akathisia and the government did not want any action. This was not qualified. Did he mean MHRA or NICE or Matt Hancock.,

    There is undoubtedly pressure not to reveal the true nature of SSRIs, violence, homicide and suicide and severe harms and it is avoidably made complicated. Law and Medical Ethics, strident opposition from medical leaders who don’t have any facts at their fingertips, doctors who maybe draw in the air that antidepressants are safe and effective and patients who trust their doctors not to give them dangerous medications.

    On the Victoria Derbyshire programme Simon Wessely was caught on camera lolling on a sofa, his eyes just short of rolling when Leonie Fennell came on to speak about her son Shane’s violent reaction and death from an antidepressant. As he noticed the camera on him, he immediately sat bolt upright feigning interest. On a Maudsley Debate, he was accused of taking money from pharmaceutical companies; shoulders heaving, he was apoplectic with rage. This debate sparked his wife Clare to stand up in the audience and heckle; as this was a debate with a vote, any normal debate would be cancelled as interfering with the vote.

    Wendy Burn suggested that it was GPs who provided the most helpful input for Stopping Antidepressants, ignoring Wendy Dolin’s presentation on Akathisia at the RCP Conference.

    In the UK, there are Narrative Controllers who influence.
    They go beyond their brief and give out summary opinions.

    It is unlikely they would do very well under cross-examination…

    From the Grassy Knoll

    https://davidhealy.org/from-the-grassy-knoll/

    “Thanks Sound track is rather avant- garde !”

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