Well, it’s
that time again. I was presented with a single case – a fifty-six year old chap
in the out-patient department requiring group & save.
He grouped
as B Rh(D) Positive with a negative antibody screen
I got the green
light
This is (supposed to be) a reflective diary by a (not very) anonymous biomedical scientist who works somewhere in the south of England. One day this diary may well be submitted to the Health and Care Professions Council as evidence of ongoing continual professional development....
28 September 2022 (Wednesday) - Wassat?
Perhaps
not the best photo,, but tis appeared in the Hematology Interest Group Facebook
page. A basophilic eosinophil? An eosinophilic basophil?
It’s a
harlequin cell.
They are
rather obscure.
27 September 2022 (Tuesday) - A Bit Of A Rant
The HCPC
sent its newsletter today. You can read it by
clicking here. There were some interesting things in there which I
eventually read (particularly about the standards of proficiency), but
my attention was gripped by the first article…
I try to
maintain a professional demeanour in this blog,
but today I’m going to have a little rant. To coin a phrase I sometimes
use in my other blog (which is linked in the column on the right) when I
read that article my piss boiled.
The HCPC a
statutory regulator of over two hundred and eighty thousand professionals from fifteen
health and care professions throughout the United Kingdom. Its main purpose is
to protect the public which it does this by setting and maintaining standards
of proficiency and conduct for the professions it regulates. Its key functions
include approving education and training programmes which health and care
professionals must complete before they can register with the HCPC; and
maintaining and publishing a register of health and care providers who meet
pre-determined professional requirements and standards of practice. And holding
tribunals when these professional standards aren’t met.
You can read
more on Wikipedia, but basically it is a vital body instrumental in
maintaining the standards of healthcare in the UK.
But… The
body receives no funding whatsoever from the UK government. That’s not not
much”, that’s “none
at all”. All that it does (and it does a lot) is funded from my payments
and the payments of all the other registrants.. The HCPC claims that being a
financially independent institution, is crucial for maintaining fair standards
for the professions they regulate. I can’t say I agree with this; especially as
this costs me nearly a hundred quid a year in payments I have to make to the
HCPC.
Who else
pays to be able to work? And now they want to put it up by another twenty.
I don’t
deny the HCPC needs the funding. But is funding the vital work the HCPC does in
this way in any way defensible? Surely it should be funded from the public
purse in the same way the NHS is funded?
Perhaps I
might start a national campaign to achieve this… Or perhaps I will just content
myself by having this rant and just pay the extra twenty quid.
23 September 2022 (Friday) - Elliptocytosis
I found a new case of hereditary elliptocytosis today. Rather than going blah-blah-blah here reproducing that which you can look up on Wikipedia in minutes, I updated my Atlas of Haematolgy. Call it up by clicking here and click on elliptocytes…
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