Physicians across Egypt complain of long hours, shrinking respect for their profession, lack of medicine and broken equipment. The nation's doctors have been protesting for weeks and have set a March deadline for a nationwide strike. The Doctors Union is demanding an immediate minimum monthly salary of 1,000 pounds or about $180 for the 93,000 physicians working directly for the state. The current starting monthly pay for doctors in Egypt can be as low as $23.
Hartford (CT) Hospital's incoming president and CEO Elliot Joseph says that the nation's healthcare system is broken, and that improvements must come from within the boardrooms and examining rooms of individual healthcare institutions. The Hartford Hospital board of directors chose Joseph as its new chief because of his experience in transforming a loosely knit group of seven hospitals and 125 outpatient centers in Michigan into a coordinated system of care. During the national search for a CEO, the board noticed that Hartford lags behind the nation in consolidating disparate health care providers.
A congressional committee is asking whether the FDA's recent lapse in allowing a plant it never inspected to export to the U.S. is part of a larger problem of poor oversight and a shortage of resources at the agency. Although FDA officials insist the agency inspects every foreign plant sending medical products to the U.S., the agency's own data make it appear unlikely. An FDA-appointed commission that studied the agency's inspection record found the FDA is short of financial resources, has cut personnel, has rickety data management systems and is struggling to meet its oversight obligations.
The skirmish between the presidential candidates over the mechanics of universal health coverage will soon give way to a different general-election debate--about whether universal coverage should even be a national priority. In the primaries, Democratic candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama magnified their differences over making health insurance mandatory. Senator John McCain agrees with the Democrats that the health system needs major repair, but his solution would stress cost-containment over assuring coverage for all.
J Sainsbury, one of Britain's largest supermarket chains, has become the first in the country to offer a visit to a family doctor in one of its stores. At Sainsbury, a team of government-financed doctors will see patients. To start, they will work in the evenings and on Saturdays in a fully equipped consultation room in one store. If the pilot project succeeds, it is expected to be introduced in other Sainsbury stores.
Pennsylvania is among a handful of states trying to counter the pharmaceutical industry's multibillion-dollar marketing and cut costs for prescription-aid programs for senior citizens. State officials say they are trying to ensure that patients get the most effective treatment, but driving the outreach is an effort to hold down expenses. In some cases the states try to keep costs down by steering doctors to generics, in others by showing how lifestyle changes can sometimes be preferable to medication.