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Biomedical subjects

P Priest

Publications and source records attributed to P Priest.

27 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

How representative are members of expert panels?

A study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that consultants who are willing to participate in expert panels are similar, in terms of routinely available characteristics, to those who are not participating. All consultants in acute specialties in North-east Thames Region were asked to participate in a series of expert panels. Routinely available data was used to compare those who agreed to participate with those who declined or did not reply. Consultants who are willing to participate in expert panels are similar to those who are not in terms of years since qualification, specialty, sex, country of graduation, and possession of higher degrees. Consultants working in district general hospitals seem to be more likely to be willing to participate than those employed in teaching hospitals (37% versus 26%, p less than 0.02), although this difference may be accounted for by errors in the list of teaching hospital consultants.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1991

Suicide and other unexpected deaths among psychiatric in-patients. The Bristol confidential inquiry.

By matching information collected from coroner inquest records with hospital admission and discharge registers, 27 suicides and 5 other unexpected deaths were identified over 30 months among persons who either were psychiatric in-patients at the time or had been up to eight weeks previously. The relevant consultant completed a questionnaire concerning assessment and management in each case. It is suggested that such an approach might usefully be adopted widely as an audit of unexpected deaths. In 20 of the suicides the seriousness of the risk was not fully recognised; 13 absented themselves from the hospital ward without leave. Misleading clinical improvement in the absence of corresponding alleviation of situational problems, and patient alienation appeared important hazards. The findings have implications for service development, particularly when major reduction of bed numbers is planned.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Which general surgical operations must be done at night?

During the 1980s there has been increasing concern about hospital medical staffing. Achieving a Balance will lead to a reduction in the number of registrars and a possible increase in the work done out-of-hours by consultants. The deleterious effects of long hours of work have also attracted attention and, in particular, there is concern about the safety of operations performed at night by unsupervised junior doctors. There is an urgent need to examine how out-of-hours work can be reduced. This study was conducted in two phases. The out-of-hours surgical workload in four hospitals was examined. Appropriateness of the procedures and activities being carried out was then considered by a consensus panel, aided by a literature review. Most out-of-hours operations were performed by junior staff. The principal reasons suggested for operating at night are lack of day-time theatre space and the need to gain experience. There was considerable variation in the frequency with which different types of operation were performed among hospitals. The views of the panel suggest that up to one-third of operations currently performed at night could be postponed. It may be possible to postpone a higher proportion of operations performed after midnight. The appropriateness of the remaining operations has major implications for the work of consultants following the implementation of Achieving a Balance.

Emergencies↗
PubMed1976

Human fat cell sizing--a quick, simple method.

Two methods were used to determine the mean cell diameters of 37 samples of human adipose tissue, obtained by open or needle biopsy. Method I was the sizing of cells in cell suspensions and Method II was a quick, simple method of sizing cells from fixed sections. The agreement between the two methods was good (r = 0.93, P = less than 0.001). The results using Method II were slightly lower than those using Method I, and a correction factor is suggested. Method II has several advantages over Method I and we propose that it is a suitable method for sizing cells when a quick method with a permanent record is required.

Adipose Tissue↗