Firm foundation for senior house officers: Quality assurance programme needs to be in place

Abstract

Editor-The editorial by Gallen and Peile signals anything but a firm foundation for training junior doctors. 1 The first foundation year will essentially be an extension of undergraduate training, its doctors allowed only to observe medical practice. And doctors in foundation year 2 will be "career tourists," spending too little time in each specialty to be able to offer much service in return. Medical educationalists should realise that nurses and other paramedical groups are encroaching on traditional medical practice and do not seem to need the sort of extended training we demand of medical students. For example, a six week course apparently enables paramedics to administer safely almost all drugs used in emergency practice. By contrast we seem intent on postponing the time at which our bright and enthusiastic young doctors can start treating patients. Five years is quite long enough to learn the theory of medicine. After that, the sooner young doctors are allowed to start treating patients, in a supervised setting, the better.

A Model for Quantifying Expected Effects of Demand-Side Management Strategies

“…2) Tariff design: Tariff unit costs [kWh] based on Colombian values were considered. To define the number of pricing periods, the price ratio, price Differential in Two-Period Rates [$] and peak period duration (total hours per day) offered to each type of customer, recommendations from international success stories were taken into account [27]. 3) Base-case: a mockup utility with eight types of customers is simulated to evaluate all demand response strategies.…”