top of page
Writer's pictureCamWAMS Team

17th October 2019 Newsletter

Updated: Mar 19, 2021

Hello readers! Welcome to the Cambridge Widening Access to Medicine Society fortnightly newsletter 😊


Congratulations on sending off UCAS applications!



Food for Thought: an example interview question

”If you had the money to do either 100 hip replacements or 1 heart transplant, which one would you do any why?”

See the bottom for some suggested approaches to this!



Behind the Headlines

Climate change 'biggest global health threat' of century, doctors warn


Every day, there is something in the news about the climate emergency. You have probably seen Greta Thunberg, a 16 year old activist, address various gatherings of world leaders, and perhaps you have taken part in the #FridaysForFuture school strike social movement. It would be fair to say there is an air of mass panic about global warming, but what exactly are the likely impacts on population health and healthcare systems?

Leading medical journal The Lancet published a report detailing the following as key concerns for health:


1. Storms and floods

  • Disease outbreaks – particularly water borne diseases like cholera

  • Flooded hospitals – reduced access to medical care

2. Wildfires

  • Air pollution in the surrounding areas – respiratory diseases

  • Homes destroyed – mental health effects (also applies to floods)

3. Heatwaves

  • Groups vulnerable to heat stroke – elderly, young children

  • Warmer conditions = more favourable for mosquito borne conditions like dengue fever to spread more widely

These are grave concerns for population health and the ability of the healthcare system to cope with increase demands. Finally, it is worth reflecting that lower- and middle-income countries such as those in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, despite their relatively low greenhouse gas emissions. If wealthier nations’ economic development was driven by fossil fuels, do their leaders have a right to limit the fossil fuel use in developing countries? What responsibilities do wealthier nations have to mitigate the effects of extreme weather in the developing world?


Link of the fortnight

Free Oxbridge and Medicine admissions talks for schools – share this link with a teacher to see if you could arrange a session at your school via reputable agency, UniAdmissions.



Myth-buster

“Medical students all have parents / aunts and uncles / family friends who are doctors!”

NOT TRUE! Whilst knowing doctors can sometimes make it easier to get work experience, medical schools know this and won’t penalise you for not having weeks of experience in hospitals. Lots of medical students had never known a doctor before applying to Cambridge, and people come from all different types of family background.



Food for Thought: An example approach

This is a difficult question, because there is no correct answer. The most important thing about your answer to ethical questions is the approach; think and talk through the arguments you could make for each side before coming to a conclusion. Some important things to think about when answering ethical questions are:

  1. The four basic principles of medical ethics - non-maleficence (do no harm), beneficence (do what’s in the patient’s best interest), autonomy (respect the patient’s right to decide on treatment for themselves) and justice (access to treatments must be fair and equal amongst all groups of society). In this question, either option would respect the autonomy of the patient(s) involved (as long as they wanted the treatment in question), and you can assume the treatment given would be in their best interest, and not deliberately be causing harm.. You could argue it is less just to use vast amounts of resources on one person than use some on a larger number of people.

  2. Think about how to maximise the most good for the most number of people - in this case, is the benefit gained by the 100 hip replacements greater or less than the benefit given by the 1 heart transplant? Do you think saving a life instead of simply improving it should mean the heart transplant is more worthy?

  3. In questions about resource allocation, you could talk about QALYs - Quality Adjusted Life Years. A QALY is a unit of measurement that describes one year in perfect health, and is a measurement used by NICE to decide how effective a given treatment is, and therefore how much we should be prepared to pay for it. Do you think 100 hip replacements or 1 heart transplant gives the most QALYs?

There are certainly other things you could talk about in answering this question, such as whether the age of patients matters, how the gain in quality of life could be difficult to measure compared to gain in quantity of life, and how different ethical theories (such as utilitarianism, rights ethics and deontology) could lead you to different answers.



Thanks for reading – if you have any questions then as ever please just email us at access@clinsoc.co.uk!


Hope you have a great fortnight and GOOD LUCK!


Love,

CamWAMS Committee


32 views0 comments

Komentarze


bottom of page