DAILY MAIL: Yesterday at Windsor Castle Biennial luncheon of Order of Merit. incl Rt.Hon J .CHRETIEN

The Rt. Hon. Jean Chrétien 81, was Canada’s Liberal PM from 1993 until 2003. In 1995, he did the Queen a favour by helping stop Quebec becoming independent.

A less welcome memory will be how a Canadian DJ involved her in one an infamous hoax call by pretending to be Chrétien.

The prankster spoke to the monarch on-air for 15 minutes and elicited a promise for her to influence the Quebec referendum. The Queen fell for the ruse, with the Palace describing the incident as ‘irritating and regrettable’.

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Comment:

Canucks are not allowed to be UK Dames,Knights or Lords.

Order has to be returned to the Palace when the holder dies. 

ONE MD

Egyptian-born Prof.Sir Magdi Yacoub 79, carried out Britain’s first heart and lung transplant at Harefield Hospital in 1983 and is thought to have performed more heart transplants than anyone else. He is professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Imperial College London.

He was inspired to take up his career after his aunt died of a heart condition while giving birth.

Last year he caused headlines by recommending that everyone over the age of 40 should take cholesterol-busting statins. The benefits of taking the controversial drugs ‘massively’ outweigh the risks and to not make them more widely available is ‘lunacy’, he said.

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Toronto CASSELS BROCK: EMPLOYERLAWBLOG.CA

UPDATE on EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS  ACT 2000

BILL 18 -"The Stronger Workplaces fpr a Stronger Economy Act 2014 (passed Nov. 2014) Amends Employment Standards Act 2000 et al.

SEMINAR: April 15

PARTNER("Barrister") (?46y) Kirsten TAYLOR BA (UWO 90) LLB (York - Osgoode 93)
PARTNER ("Solicitor") (?37y) Laurie JESSOME BA(St.F.Xavier-Nova Scotia 1999) LLB (U.Tor. 2002)
ASSOCIATE (":Barrister" (?28y.) Caitlin RUSSELL B.Comm( Guelph.2008) JD( Queen's 2012)

DANGERS to DOCTORS:

ESA $10,000 cap on claims removed.

 Copy of Act MUST be given to all employees by June 20,2015

Employer has to Audit effects of Act.

"Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act 2005."applies to employer with only ONE employee.

Employer must provide employees  with TRAINING.on dealing with the Disabled.

"RETURN to WORK" process must have "an individual accommodation plan".

Legal dangers of BACKGROUND CHECKS: (e.g. CREDIT, MEDICAL, CRIMINAL, DRUG & ALCOHOL testing).

SWISS Prof LANG Stereotest cards 1 & 2 .to test stereoscopic vision .

info@lang-stereotest.com

Set of 1 & 2 CHF 230

Last a lifetime.

In Ontario shortage of Ophthos interested in Strabismus. OHIP payments poor. Retiring Lady Ophtho. who specialized in Strabismus could not give away her busy practice at Toronto 123 Edward St Medical building

Toronto "Hosp for Sick Children" has an OHIP-paid ORTHOPTIC dept,. (odd name: why include "Sick')

There are two Specialists interested in Strabismus.

Prof Stephen Paul KRAFT MD(Tor.1978) FRCPC(1982) The only Canadian in the USA Assn for Research in Strabismus. stephenkraft@sickkids.ca

Asst.Prof David Royce SMITH MDCM (McGill 1964) FRCPC (1969) drsoffice@plink.net

LANG-STEREOTEST

Development and characteristics:

The LANG-STEREOTEST was developed by the Swiss ophthalmologist Joseph Lang in the beginning of the eighties. The easy-to-use test is applied for the early detection of problems in stereoscopic vision in children and infants, but also in adults. Since many years, the test has been very much estimated by ophthalmologists, paediatricians and doctors working in the primary health care or in prevention. Two versions are available (LANG-STEREOTEST I and II) which only differ in the type of stereoscopic objects to be recognized. The LANG-STEREOTEST II additionally contains a picture that can be recognized with only one eye (a star). The test-plates are solid and can easily be carried around due to their handy postcard-size. These are distributed together with a fitting case, a brief instruction as well as a detailed test-description in several languages.

The Importance of stereopsis:

Stereopsis or depth perception can be characterized as the highest degree of binocular vision. It therefore represents one of the most important partial functions of the human visual sense. In a limited extent, stereoscopic vision is actually possible with only one eye, for example due to perspective and shadow effects or parallel displacement, as well as with certain forms of strabismus (with the so-called anomalous retinal correspondence which occurs when non-corresponding retinal points have the same sense of visual direction). However, a completely missing or limited stereopsis can lead to severe handicaps in many life-domains and professions. This is a reason why this function should already be regularly examined in children and later within the education of jobs requiring an accurate stereoscopic vision.

Functional principle of the LANG-STEREOTEST

The LANG-STEREOTEST for the first time combines two functional principles of stereograms: The random dots of Julesz and the grid of cylinders of W.R. Hess. The random dots of Julesz are applied in different stereograms using polarized glasses or the red-green-glasses. Seen with only one eye (monocular vision), these stereograms do not show any shapes, while, upon binocular inspection, figures, typically in different depths, can be seen.

Grids of cylinders were invented by the Swiss ophthalmologist and physiologist W. R. Hess (Nobel Prize in 1949) in 1912. The images of the two eyes are separated by a system of tiny parallel cylindrical strips. Under each cylinder, there are two tiny strips of picture: one can only be perceived by the right, the other only by the left eye.

Particularities in comparison to other stereo-test methods:

In contrast to the more traditional methods for examination of stereopsis, the Lang-Stereotest requires no glasses and the eye movements of the patient can be much better observed by the examiner, thanks to the first-time combination of the two technologies mentioned above. Observing the patients eye-movement during testing has been noticed to be of particular importance in small children: once the child has recognized the different stereoscopic figures that are shown on the test-plate, he subsequently will start to look repeatedly at these figures.

Other common, so-called haploscopic test-procedures, such as the Titmus-test are based on polarization and therefore require special glasses. The TNO-test uses the red-green-dissociation and hence needs corresponding red-green-glasses as well. With the LANG-STEREOTEST however, the dissociation in haploscopic pictures is ensured by the cylinder gratings on the surface of the test-plate.

Furthermore, due to the application of the random dots and the lacking of picture-outlines in the LANG-STEREOTEST, as well as in similar test using this principle (e.g. a version of the Randot-test), all monocular stereoscopic stimuli are completely eliminated. It is just the disparity of the figures represented, that generates a perception of depth and hence enables a precise perception of the shapes. Since primarily children are investigated, three objects have been chosen which are already common in this stage of life. The three objects – in the LANG-STEREOTEST I a cat, a star and a car, in the LANG-STEREOTEST II an elephant, a car and a moon – differ in disparity and perceived distance, the cat respectively the elephant being the closest.

Globe & Mail: Plans to close Obstetric unit of Leamington District Hosp.

Leamington Hosp.has about one Birth a day. Small town (30,000) in S/W Ontario famous for growing tomatoes. Heinz left the town and London Ontario factory due to the anti-business attitude of the London City Council which blocked expansion. 700 jobs lost.

Locals object to driving 37 miles to Windsor.Regional Hosp. 650 beds. 3,600 births yearly.

Ont Min.Health & Long Term Care trying to find a political solution.

Hosp Chief of Staff: Surgeon Ejaz Ahmed GHUMMAN MD(Punjab U. 1982)
Pres.Med.Staff GP Atif Ahmed CHOWDHURY MD(Saba Med.Sch. 2006)

UK PULSE: Third of GP Training places not filled.

New Grad prefer Hospital jobs. Lower RISK of patient complaints and revalidation inspection.criticism.

Third of GP trainee positions remain unfilled across the UK following first round of recruitment

1 April 2015 | By Alex Matthews-King

Exclusive Around 30% of GP training places across the UK remained unfilled following the first round of recruitment, with the worst-affected areas seeing vacancy rates of up to 65%, Pulse can reveal.
Figures for the first round of recruitment, revealed on the GP National Recruitment Office website, show that more than 60% of positions in the East Midlands and North East of England remain unfilled.
Only London and Northern Ireland have filled all their positions after the first round of recruitment and two more - Kent, Surrey & Sussex and Thames Valley - have said they are likely to have filled their places by now.
Overall, there is a 29% vacancy rate across the UK compared with 8% of places in 2013, the last year figures for this round were available.
There are normally two rounds of GP trainee recruitment, but Health Education England was forced to instigate an unprecedented third round last year following poor take-up rates - a move that is likely to occur again this year.
GP leaders in the worst affected regions have said they think it is unlikely these positions will be filled by August.
It comes after Pulse revealed earlier in the year that applications for GP training had dropped, for the second successive year, by 6%.
This is the latest setback in Health Education England’s attempts to recruit 3,250 GP trainees a year by 2016, a deadline that has already been pushed back a year after application rates tumbled in 2014, and will further heap pressure on GP recruitment.

Related stories

Map: How many trainee vacancies are there in your area?
Revealed: 6% drop in GP training applications this year
GPs to be offered incentives to delay retirement under £10m strategy to solve workforce crisis

HEE could not provide a breakdown of the vacancy rates after last year’s round 1 intake but there was a 12% shortfall by the end of the whole recruitment process, despite the unprecedented third round of recruitment, labelled ‘desperate’ by GP leaders
NHS England, along with HEE, the BMA and RCGP recently launched a 10 point plan to tackle GP recruitment along with retaining the existing workforce and coaxing those who have left the profession to return.
But GP leaders say minor changes won’t suffice and a contract overhaul is needed to improve general practice’s stock.
Dr John Ashcroft, an executive officer of Derby and Derbyshire LMC in the hard hit East Midlands, told Pulse the whole situation was ‘depressing’ and that 20 ago he and his wife - both East Midlands alumni – had to fight for places.
He added: ‘We need a new contract, the contract isn’t fit for purpose, they talk about “you need extra doctors”… we keep hearing the talk, but we’re not really seeing anything to really make a difference. That ultimately means money, doesn’t it?
‘Words are cheap, money counts. If they really recognise the importance of general practice, somebody’s got to find some real money to put in there, otherwise it’s going to keep on getting worse.’
Dr Krishna Kasaraneni, chair of the GPC’s education, training & workforce subcommittee, told Pulse: ‘I think it wouldn’t be unreasonable to say the last two years for general practice recruitment haven’t been that great, simple as that.’
‘The approach that Health Education England and NHS England have taken recently… to listen to [the BMA’s] concerns and put measures in place to try and address that has been a welcome change.’
However, he added that these changes had come too late to impact on the 2015 recruitment figures, but that planning would be ‘much better’ next year.
Health Education England said it was unable to comment until the end of the pre-election ‘purdah’ period.

Top Canuck Law Firm by REVENUE: McCARTHY TETRAULT (MT)

MT is 84th of the World's Top 100 Law Firms.(The only Can.Law firm listen in the Top 100)

Yearly MT Revenue = $397-mill.

Top is USA BAKER & McKENZIE @ $2,419-mill.

Ont.Med.Review Health Policy Dept still advises N(NIOSH) 95 (% efficiency) masks in management of MEASLES.

CMAJ. 2003 Sep 16; 169(6): 541–542.

PMCID: PMC191266

SARS respiratory protection

John H. Lange

Author information ► Copyright and License information ►

This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.

Since preparation of my letter on respiratory protection against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) for health care workers,¹ an additional important study has appeared. Ofner and associates² have reported on 9 of 11 health care workers in whom SARS developed even though they were following the infection-control precautions recommended in Canada at the time,³ including use of an N95 respirator. However, the N95 respirator in use was a duckbill mask (PCM2000, Kimberly Clark Health Care, Roswell, Ga.), which is not approved by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).² The use of N95 respirators, a recommendation adopted from tuberculosis (TB) protection guidelines, has been suggested by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for protection against SARS, although the CDC recommends that only NIOSH-approved respirators be used.⁴ Of note, TB bacteria are much larger than the SARS virus, which indicates that a higher-efficiency respirator would be required for adequate protection against the virus.

Ofner and associates² reported that the health care workers in their study were not fit-tested, and at least one of the workers had a beard. In my earlier letter,¹ I suggested N100 respirators with ultra-low penetrating filters for the best protection. The respirator should also be elastomeric to allow a good fit on the face; notably, N100 elastomeric respirators can be cleaned and reused. Before a health-care worker uses a respirator, he or she should receive appropriate training, must be properly fit-tested, and should undergo a medical surveillance examination; these activities should be repeated yearly. In a previous study of asbestos workers,⁵ I reported that many do not use their respirators properly, despite training. Thus, providing N100 respirators will be insufficient to prevent infection if health care workers use them improperly or compliance is less than 100%.

John H. Lange Environmental and Occupational Health Consultant Envirosafe Training and Consultants, Inc. Pittsburgh, Pa.

Go to:

References

1. Lange JH. The best protection [letter]. CMAJ 2003; 168(12):1524. [PMC free article] [PubMed]

2. Ofner M, Lem M, Sarwal S, Vearncombe M, Simor A. From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cluster of severe acute respiratory syndrome cases among protected health- care workers — Toronto, Canada. JAMA 2003; 289:2788-9. [PubMed]

3. Infection control guidance for respirators (masks) worn by health care workers — frequently ask questions. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Ottawa: Health Canada; revised 2003 Jun 6. Available: www.hc-sc.gc.ca/pphb-dgspsp/sars-sras/ic-ci/sars-respmasks_e.html (accessed 2003 Aug 7).

4. Interim domestic guidance on the use of respirators to prevent transmission of SARS. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2003 May 6. Available: www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars/respirators.htm (accessed 2003 Aug 6).

5. Lange JH. A questionnaire survey during asbestos abatement refresher training for frequency of respirator use, respirator fit testing and medical surveillance. J Occup Med Toxicol 1993; 2:65-74.