Educational | Public Health and Wellbeing

Who’s taking the urine?

September 4, 2015 by Dr Mike Simmons Leave a Comment

Or who is responsible for sending urine samples to the laboratory and why?

I’ve used a variation of that title as part of the title for a number of presentations I’ve been giving across our local health board area, in an attempt to grab my audience attention.

What’s the issue?

Innapropriate use of antibiotics, particularly in our older population, to treat alledged urinary tract infection. Indeed, this article is prompted by a conversation this morning with one of my biomedical scientists in the lab. We were discussing the whole issue of interpretation of microbiology results and management of infection. She … Read the rest

A paradigm shift in thinking

September 15, 2014 by Dr Mike Simmons 5 Comments

I’m pleased to see that the Hywel Dda Health Board’s new strategic direction for the management of Healthcare Associated Infections is available to view on their Internet site. The paper that outlines the proposals is

“Reducing HCAI through a paradigm shift in thinking: The Law of Multiple Small Positive Returns”

I wrote this paper for the board’s Quality and Safety Committee, which considered them in June, following a series of meetings that started in December 2013. The Quality and Safety Committee is one of the Statutory Committees of the board and the complete suite of documents are available … Read the rest

When transparency is opaque

July 12, 2013 by Dr Mike Simmons 1 Comment

I’m struck by the desire of the Welsh Government Health Department to encourage Health Boards in Wales to increase transparency in relation to Healthcare Associated Infection, which is commendable but as my title suggests, if we are not careful, may confuse our local population and in the worst case scenario, lead to anxiety.

As regular readers will be aware, I have a long abiding concern over the harms we can inflict on our patients and their relatives and said much in this area in my article, “Should I be worried about Healthcare Associated Infections“. I became very interested … Read the rest

Blood cultures: an important test

March 18, 2013 by Dr Mike Simmons Leave a Comment

One of the most important microbiological investigations we undertake is the blood culture. This is because blood does not normally have bacteria swimming around in it and therefore unlike from non-sterile sites, we can view any organism from a blood culture as potentially serious.

That said, as with any test we undertake, the opportunity for a sample to become contaminated is ever present. This is just as true for blood culture because the sample is taken from a vein and access to the vein is via a needle through the skin. Skin is not sterile but is home to many … Read the rest

Understanding behavioural responses to infections

June 13, 2010 by Dr Mike Simmons 1 Comment

The Infectious Disease Research Network held a fascinating conference on Friday 11th June entitled “Understanding behavioural responses to infectious disease outbreaks”. The programme was still available last time I looked at: www.idrn.org/events/upcoming/behavioural.php. This seemed the ideal opportunity to see if others felt there were opportunities to explore the internet technologies in getting people engaged in discussions around public health issues – something that this whole site is aiming to do.

Communicating an issue is one thing; getting people to change their behaviour is the difficult bit. But as this web site attests, if we are to get more into … Read the rest