London Calling

Saturday, 18 July 2009

The RCGP Substance Misuse Certificate in the Management of Alcohol Problems in Primary Care

It has been a long time in development but it is here at last - the RCGP certificate in the management of alcohol problems in primary care.

The RCGP has developed this Certificate in response to increasing demand for education in the treatment of alcohol misuse. It is aimed at GPs and other healthcare professionals working in primary care.

In common with the successful certificate in the management of drug misuse, part 1, the certificate in the management of alcohol misuse is in two parts; the Department of Health Alcohol Identification and Brief Advice e-learning course

http://www.alcohollearningcentre.org.uk/eLearning/IBA/

and a one-day face-to-face event.

The first certificate course will be launched on Thursday 24th September 2009 at The Park Inn, North Street, York, YO1 6JF. The cost for the day is £250 but please reserve your place before sending payment. Payment is by cheque only and must be in the SMU office by Friday 4th September 2009 at the latest. To reserve a place please contact: Sally O’Neill - eventssmu@rcgp.org.uk . The certificate course will be run in London in spring 2010.

If you would like more information about how to arrange to deliver this course locally, please contact Jo Betterton – jbetterton@rcgp.org.uk .

Both Jo and Sally can be contacted at the SMU, Suite 314, 32-38 Leman Street, London E1 8EW or by telephone on 020 7173 6092.

Friday, 17 July 2009

RCGP Certificate in the Management of Drug Misuse – Part One Courses

Part One to the RCGP Certificate in the Management of Drug Misuse is ideal for GPs working at a generalist level, as part of a shared care scheme and for those intending to provide treatment to drug users as part of a locally or nationally enhanced service.

The Part One course is now a multi-disciplinary, so pharmacists, nurses, drug workers and other healthcare professionals can complete the certificate. The cost for the day is £250. The next two courses are:

Tuesday 29 September 2009
Tuesday 17 November 2009
11 January 2010
15 March 2010

These are all at RCGP, 14 Princes Gate, Hyde Park,London, SW7 1PU

Find out more at www.rcgp.org.uk/substancemisuse.

Or contact Lorna Boothe, RCGP SMU, Suite 314, Frazer House, 32-38 Leman Street, London, E1 8EW. E-mail: lboothe@rcgp.org.uk Tel: 0207 173 6093. Fax: 0207 173 6089.

Saturday, 4 July 2009

Mother's little helpers

At the RCGP part two certificate course in substance misuse, we were discussing the prescribing of benzodiazepines and one of the group remindered me of the Rolling Stone's classic song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL_ygXeLbdU&feature=related

Mick Jagger looks incredible young!

Managing Hepatitis C

For up to date information on how to manage hepatitis C, have a look at the clinical review in June 26th 2009 issue of the BMJ:

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/338/jun26_1/b2366

Unfortunately you have to be a member to view it online.

However the RCGP booklet 'Guidnace for prevention, testing, treatment and management of Hepatitis C in Primary Care' is free and is also pretty damn good!

http://www.rcgp.org.uk/pdf/hep%20C%20guidance%20%20%202008.pdf

The effectiveness of brief alcohol interventions in primary care settings

My thanks to Chris Ford to alerting me to a systematic review of brief alcohol interventions in general practice.

The systematic review showed that in the set of trials analysed, brief intervention led to greater reductions in drinking among risky drinkers than just asking about drinking, or usual clinical care, and that the research would generalise to routine general practice.

The review can be found at the Drug and Alcohol Findings website:

http://findings.org.uk/count/downloads/download.php?file=Kaner_E_7.txt