All Scrubbed Up Retiring...

Unfortunately due to other commitments and just generally getting older, SA Doc and myself have to announce that All Scrubbed is retiring. It's been one helluva ride - and thank you to everyone for being part of it. Every comment was highly appreciated and kept us going through the last 2 years.


We'll obviously keep it alive so you can trawl through the archives. There are some doozies!
Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Totsiens! Ciao!


Blog closed.


End.

GUEST POST: How to Improve Medical Services in Third World Countries

The world has become a much smaller place, thanks to technology and globalization. But no matter how connected we are, there still exist huge disparities between the rich and the poor. The gap gets wider with each passing year, for individuals and nations. In the eyes of the developed world, third world countries are perceived as places where the standard of living is poor and where the things they take for granted are considered luxuries. In reality however, third world countries have their share of both the obscenely rich and the dirt poor. And the main reason for their backwardness is not just the paucity of money, but also the lack of awareness and education among the poorer and downtrodden sections of society.

When we consider the state of medical services in these countries, we see that the rich are able to afford any kind of treatment for all kinds of diseases. But for the poor and the middle class, medication is prohibitively expensive simply because quality medical services are only offered by the private sector. The government does offer services for the poor and those who are not able to afford private medical treatment, but the quality of treatment is poor at times. Also, the facilities are often overcrowded and not hygienic, and this makes the middle class hesitant to seek medical treatment at these places.

Improving medical services in third world countries is an uphill climb, but it can be done if:

• Tax money is put to better use – to build cleaner and more spacious medical facilities and to pay qualified doctors and other healthcare personnel so that they don’t move away to set up their own private practice or join a private care provider.
• Politicians don’t get greedy and swindle public funds that are meant for the improvement of society and the common man.
• Bribery is abolished and doctors and healthcare personnel are encouraged to offer better services through various incentives.
• People are made more aware of the need for cleanliness and personal hygiene.
• Education is made compulsory for children so that they have opportunities to leave behind the squalor and poverty they grew up in.
• Smaller towns and villages are better linked by road to cities and larger towns where there are better medical facilities.
• Mobile medical services are introduced in remote villages so that diseases are diagnosed in the early stages and the need for emergency care and hospitalization is minimized.
• More emphasis is placed on preventive rather than curative care. When this happens and people are more aware of the need for preventive care through the right diet and regular exercise, healthcare begins to look up in any nation, developed or developing.

By-line:

This guest article is written by Teresa Jackson, she writes on the subject of online NP schools . She invites your questions, comments at her email address : teresa.jackson19@gmail.com.

Coffee good for that heart?

Drinking coffee 'protects the heart'. Researchers have discovered that regular coffee drinkers are less likely to be admitted to hospital with irregular heart beats or rhythms. And the more cups they drink a day, the less likely they are to suffer from the condition. (From The Telegraph).

OK.

But isn't red wine and whiskey good for the heart as well? Hook me up to a combo drip of the 3 of those.

I've thought of SA Doc's next post. WHY COFFEE WILL KILL YOU.

Awesome.

Anyone still listening?

So, SA Doc is losing a bit of faith in this blog, not finding the time to feed her ghost writer with juicy medical tidbits. Is there anyone out there still reading this?

Time to pack in the towel on 2 years of awesome medical blogging and fun - or should we kick SA Doc in the ass and get some more stories?

Fellatio reduces risk of breast cancer!

I think that this post should be a warning to all that not all medical information available on the web is true. I constantly have patients bringing me the latest information that they have downloaded from the web about their particular condition. 90% of the time, it is rootin tootin junk. It requires great diplomacy to explain that to them, since these web pages usually gives them false hope about the treatments that they may need (or may be able to avoid).

CLAIM: According to a university study, oral sex may significantly decrease the risk of breast cancer in women.

No, this wasn't a real CNN page (or Associated Press article), nor did North Carolina State University perform a study on the connection between fellatio and breast cancer. (If nothing else, the names of the doctors cited in the article — "Dr. B.J. Sooner," "Dr. Inserta Shafteer," "Dr. Len Lictepeen" — should have given it away as a hoax.)

More info here...

Sies!