1st. EDITORIAL
Why a Med-Chi website?
Bristol medicine is at a crossroads. The heart surgery episode left scars. The Bristol hospitals have been achieving poor scores for performance. Organisational fragmentation has produced uncertainty. It might be thought that all this would result in general demoralisation. Happily, this appears not to be the case.
There now seems to be a determination to improve the service that we offer to patients and to do everything possible to enhance the reputation of Bristol medicine. Members of the Med Chi will doubtless wish to share in this task.
Many new initiatives are in hand and we shall be discussing some of these in future issues of our website. General Practitioners are wanting to show their mettle now that they have been given charge of much of the NHS budget. For instance, there are many ideas for increasing the amount of work that is done outside hospital. At the same time, there are plans to rebuild the hospitals.
Many people, doctors amongst them, have found it difficult to obtain reliable information about what is happening in the health field locally. We tend to rely on the Evening Post! Everyone knows what is going on in their own units, hospitals or practices. Beyond this, however, a Bristol-wide perspective is impossible to achieve. This is unfortunate firstly because unless we work together, Bristol Health Services will continue to lag behind those in other cities, and secondly because Bristol-wide leadership cannot be exerted unless people know what is going on.
The new Med Chi website has been set up to try to fill the gap. It has two parallel objectives. The first is to disseminate factual information about Bristol health matters including major publications, lectures, and initiatives. The second is to provide a forum for debate and discussion about health matters in the Bristol area. It is planned that there will be a new issue each month from October to May inclusive. This can be emailed to members and will be available on the Web. . Each new issue will contain one or more articles on a subject of general interest such as childrens services in Bristol. The site will also contain a diary of forthcoming events (eg. lectures), other news items from Trusts and elsewhere, obituaries and information about local medical charities. A research section may be added later. There will be a brief summary of medical news carried in the press (mainly the Evening Post).
It is of great importance that the website be regarded as being "owned" by members of the Med Chi. Members news/views will be able to be posted on the site. In this way the website will be made interactive. Contributions from members and others will be welcomed. The website belongs to the members and not to the editors!
One of the problems that has bedevilled medical politics in Bristol is that the various health professions tend to be somewhat inward looking. Those planning the website are keen not to foster this tendency. Thus, the site will be able to be accessed widely (not only by doctors) and contributions and comments from non-doctors (as well as doctors!) will be sought.
This is an experiment. None of those involved have ever set up or operated a website before. Please excuse us if there are mistakes and misjudgements in the early stages. We hope and anticipate that the site will be widely read and that it will develop and improve as the months pass.
The first two issues will cover some of the plans/discussions that are proceeding in relation to the rebuilding of Bristol hospitals. We hope then to move on to other matters including undergraduate education, information technology (inside and outside hospital) and dementia (service provision and research). There are a huge number of potential topics. Suggestions from members regarding topics and possible contributors will, again, be welcomed.
R Langton Hewer
Niall Moore