Advice centre

Many new doctors are pushed to the limits of their competence – if you feel out of your depth speak up before it’s too late, says Dr Jo Pointon.

The last thing you want to hear when on board a long-haul flight: “Is there a doctor on board?” Dr Clement Lau shares his story

Late diagnosis of HIV in adults continues to be an important issue in the UK but for too long it has been absent from healthcare’s topical agenda. With national audit data showing that 24% of deaths of HIV-positive adults in the UK in 2006 were due to a diagnosis of HIV being made too late for effective treatment,1 and further data showing that around one third of all HIV infections in UK adults remain undiagnosed, and approximately 25% of newly-diagnosed individuals have a CD4 count of less than 200 – an indicator of late diagnosis – there is clearly a lack of timely opportunity to improve early diagnosis.

Dr Imran Qureshi, Director General, Doctors Advancing Patient Safety, describes why more junior doctors should sign up

Ask any final year medical student about their biggest worry about becoming a doctor and they will answer “on-calls”. Here is the advice we wish we’d had when we started doing on-calls.

Never underestimate the power of saying sorry when mistakes are made, says Dr Stephanie Bown, MPS Director of Policy and Communications.