I went to a conference on Wednesday, and we were humbled and shamed by a fifteen year old lass, who had suffered a brain haemhorrage at the age of five and now has cerebral palsy as a result. Despite being told she would never walk or talk again, she walked to the podium and told us all about the work she was doing advising the researchers into her condition.
Just one example she gave - she had a choice of two drugs…
I rather monopolised discussion time after our Meeting for Worship this morning, summarising the conferences I'd been to recently, and explaining the problems that are going to arise if the government go ahead with their plans for the NHS. Not only are experienced people leaving the Primary Care Trusts in droves, the new commissioning bodies aren't due to start work for another 18 months, so there's going to be a hiatus…
The Involve conference was interesting, but raised a number of concerns. An awful lot of the research seems to me to be the equivalent of navel-gazing - research into how much patient and public involvement there is in research, for example. OK, we need to know that there is PPI involvement, but I'd rather research grants went to projects that helped patients and carers directly.
I'm also concerned about the small…
Had a terrible journey to Liverpool thanks to a derailment and a bus replacement from Sheffield to Manchester. Then they tried to get a trainful of people and all the football supporters onto a two coach unit. However did meet a very nice lady who was also going to the conference, and travelled with Derek Stewart from Manchester, so that made up for the delays.
Had a wonderful four days at the NCRI conference in Liverpool…
