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PRESS COUNCIL AND BIRMINGHAM EYE HOSPITAL
209
PRESS COUNCIL AND BIRMINGHAM EYE HOSPITAL THE Press Council has issued the following statement outbreak of infection last year at the Birmingham
on an
Eye Hospital 1: The Press Council has investigated a complaint that a newspaper was misled about the facts regarding an infectious organism known as Pyocyaneus, which caused the closure of Birmingham Eye Hospital’s operating theatre. Many patients were treated for infection and six of them each lost the sight of an eye. No announcement was made to the Press and a little more than a month later a rumour that five people had died of a virus infection at the hospital caused the Sunday Mercury to ask the hospital secretary whether there was any truth in what people were saying. The Secretary denied the truth of the statement. He said that there was no virus infection in the hospital and that only one person had died there in the past year. In light of this denial the newspaper did not pursue the matter.
Four days later two other newspapers made inquiries and the Group Secretary of Birmingham (Dudley Road) Group of Hospitals issued an official statement giving the facts about the infection which was not of virus origin. In a statement to the Press Council the Group Secretary said that the Eye Hospital Secretary was asked by the Sunday " Mercury reporter " Is there a virus infection in the hospital ? and " Have five people died ? " To both questions he correctly answered " No ". The Group Secretary added he regretted that incorrect inferences were drawn from these answers. To all subsequent Press inquiries, he said, the fullest information was furnished bearing in mind that a scientific investigation of the causes of the infection was being carried out and the special hospital-patient relationship that existed. A subsequent special meeting of the Hospital Management Committee approved the action taken by the hospital officers in dealing with Press inquiries and also resolved to re-examine Hospital-Press relations which were not always satisfactory. The Group Secretary told the Press Council that it was the accepted practice of the Management Committee not to volunteer information to the Press, but to provide it when approached and asked relevant questions. He added that he was not convinced there was public alarm concerning events at the hospital before the facts were officially disclosed to the Press. Mr. Frederick Whitehead, Editor, Sunday Mercury, Birmingham, contended that the hospital" secretary, when approached initially, deliberately misled that newspaper’s reporter. He claimed that the specified happenings at the Eye Hospital were a matter of grave and urgent public concern and should have been disclosed to the Press at the earliest possible moment to allay harmful speculation. Mr. Whitehead added that comparatively junior hospital officials should not be "
encouraged
to set
up
as censors.
The Press Council considers that if the hospital authorities had issued a statement on the occurrence at Birmingham Eye Hospital at an earlier stage it would have avoided the spreading of rumour and enabled the Press to give the public accurate information. In accordance with the spirit of the agreement between representatives of the medical profession and the Press, newspaper inquiries on this matter should have been answered frankly and the Council regrets that this was not done. This agreement was dated May 16, 1956, and its terms were commended in a circular issued by the Ministry of Health to regional hospital boards, hospital management committees and boards of governors. The Press Council is making inquiries throughout the country into the operation of the agreement and, if necessary, it will make proposals for a further conference. 1. See
Lancet, 1964, ii, 797.
Symposium RESEARCH IN MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY FROM A CORRESPONDENT
THE third symposium on Current Research in Muscular Dystrophy, arranged by the Muscular Dystrophy Group of Great Britain, was held at the National Hospital, Queen Square, London, on Jan. 7 and 8. Opening the symposium, Prof. F. J. NATTRASS, chairman of the Group, paid tribute to the lay workers who had enabled its research committee to make grants of over E60,000 to support research programmes in the current year. He said that the Group clearly recognised how much it owed’ to workers not receiving aid from this source, and he also acknowledged its debt to the universities and hospitals in which many of the workers receiving support were carrying out their research. He also extended a welcome to the distinguished visitors from the U.S.A., Canada, Belgium, France, Poland, and Sardinia who were present at the symposium. PHYSIOLOGY AND ANATOMY OF MUSCLE
In the first Joan Vincent Memorial Lecture, Prof. A. F. HUXLEY discussed some recent advances in the physiology of muscle. He said that the sliding-filament theory of muscular contraction was generally accepted, but that there was still controversy about the exact mechanism which caused the filaments to slide. He described a series of elegant experiments which clearly demonstrated that the act of contraction almost certainly depended on the activity of the cross bridges between the actin and myosin filaments. There was no direct evidence that the actual contraction mechanism was at fault in any human disease; nevertheless, a clear understanding of the behaviour of normal muscle was necessary for those engaged in a study of its diseases. Dr. A. J. BULLER and Dr. D. M. LEwis (London) discussed the functional differences between mammalian fast and slow skeletal muscle-fibres and described experiments which indicated that some property of the motor nerve determined the speed of contraction of the muscle-fibres; the method by which the nerve brings about a change in the intrinsic behaviour of a muscle fibre is still obscure. Dr. D. F. CHEESMAN (London) considered the role of structurally bound phosphate in muscular contraction, and reminded his audience that A.T.P. had been shown to be broken down during a single twitch in the frog sartorius. He described experiments which suggested that a transphosphorylation reaction occurred in the myofibrils, and hence there was some evidence that yet another energy-forming system was present. Turning to the anatomy of muscle, Dr. H. A. SISSONS (London) described some careful studies of the size of normal muscle-fibres; in measurement of fibre area he had used a squared-paper technique and had checked this by means of planimetry. He demonstrated a number of distribution curves of fibre area and discussed the difficulties which were likely to arise when muscle-fibre size was used as one indication of a disease process. CLINICAL AND GENETIC STUDIES
Much interest centred on the treatment of progressive muscular dystrophy with’Laevadosin’ (a nucleotide-nucleoside mixture). Mr. K. E. GUEST and Dr. W. H. S. THOMSON (Glasgow) had treated 59 cases of muscular dystrophy, 41 of the Duchenne variety, for a minimum of six months; 26 of their patients had improved, 23 improved but later relapsed, and 10 showed no improvement. Dr. Thomson suggested that serial estimations of the serum-aldolase and S.G.O.T. could be used to give an objective assessment of treatment. An attempt to design an objective technique of measurement
PRESS COUNCIL AND BIRMINGHAM EYE HOSPITAL THE Press Council has issued the following statement outbreak of infection last year at the Birmingham
on an
Eye Hospital 1: The Press Council has investigated a complaint that a newspaper was misled about the facts regarding an infectious organism known as Pyocyaneus, which caused the closure of Birmingham Eye Hospital’s operating theatre. Many patients were treated for infection and six of them each lost the sight of an eye. No announcement was made to the Press and a little more than a month later a rumour that five people had died of a virus infection at the hospital caused the Sunday Mercury to ask the hospital secretary whether there was any truth in what people were saying. The Secretary denied the truth of the statement. He said that there was no virus infection in the hospital and that only one person had died there in the past year. In light of this denial the newspaper did not pursue the matter.
Four days later two other newspapers made inquiries and the Group Secretary of Birmingham (Dudley Road) Group of Hospitals issued an official statement giving the facts about the infection which was not of virus origin. In a statement to the Press Council the Group Secretary said that the Eye Hospital Secretary was asked by the Sunday " Mercury reporter " Is there a virus infection in the hospital ? and " Have five people died ? " To both questions he correctly answered " No ". The Group Secretary added he regretted that incorrect inferences were drawn from these answers. To all subsequent Press inquiries, he said, the fullest information was furnished bearing in mind that a scientific investigation of the causes of the infection was being carried out and the special hospital-patient relationship that existed. A subsequent special meeting of the Hospital Management Committee approved the action taken by the hospital officers in dealing with Press inquiries and also resolved to re-examine Hospital-Press relations which were not always satisfactory. The Group Secretary told the Press Council that it was the accepted practice of the Management Committee not to volunteer information to the Press, but to provide it when approached and asked relevant questions. He added that he was not convinced there was public alarm concerning events at the hospital before the facts were officially disclosed to the Press. Mr. Frederick Whitehead, Editor, Sunday Mercury, Birmingham, contended that the hospital" secretary, when approached initially, deliberately misled that newspaper’s reporter. He claimed that the specified happenings at the Eye Hospital were a matter of grave and urgent public concern and should have been disclosed to the Press at the earliest possible moment to allay harmful speculation. Mr. Whitehead added that comparatively junior hospital officials should not be "
encouraged
to set
up
as censors.
The Press Council considers that if the hospital authorities had issued a statement on the occurrence at Birmingham Eye Hospital at an earlier stage it would have avoided the spreading of rumour and enabled the Press to give the public accurate information. In accordance with the spirit of the agreement between representatives of the medical profession and the Press, newspaper inquiries on this matter should have been answered frankly and the Council regrets that this was not done. This agreement was dated May 16, 1956, and its terms were commended in a circular issued by the Ministry of Health to regional hospital boards, hospital management committees and boards of governors. The Press Council is making inquiries throughout the country into the operation of the agreement and, if necessary, it will make proposals for a further conference. 1. See
Lancet, 1964, ii, 797.
Symposium RESEARCH IN MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY FROM A CORRESPONDENT
THE third symposium on Current Research in Muscular Dystrophy, arranged by the Muscular Dystrophy Group of Great Britain, was held at the National Hospital, Queen Square, London, on Jan. 7 and 8. Opening the symposium, Prof. F. J. NATTRASS, chairman of the Group, paid tribute to the lay workers who had enabled its research committee to make grants of over E60,000 to support research programmes in the current year. He said that the Group clearly recognised how much it owed’ to workers not receiving aid from this source, and he also acknowledged its debt to the universities and hospitals in which many of the workers receiving support were carrying out their research. He also extended a welcome to the distinguished visitors from the U.S.A., Canada, Belgium, France, Poland, and Sardinia who were present at the symposium. PHYSIOLOGY AND ANATOMY OF MUSCLE
In the first Joan Vincent Memorial Lecture, Prof. A. F. HUXLEY discussed some recent advances in the physiology of muscle. He said that the sliding-filament theory of muscular contraction was generally accepted, but that there was still controversy about the exact mechanism which caused the filaments to slide. He described a series of elegant experiments which clearly demonstrated that the act of contraction almost certainly depended on the activity of the cross bridges between the actin and myosin filaments. There was no direct evidence that the actual contraction mechanism was at fault in any human disease; nevertheless, a clear understanding of the behaviour of normal muscle was necessary for those engaged in a study of its diseases. Dr. A. J. BULLER and Dr. D. M. LEwis (London) discussed the functional differences between mammalian fast and slow skeletal muscle-fibres and described experiments which indicated that some property of the motor nerve determined the speed of contraction of the muscle-fibres; the method by which the nerve brings about a change in the intrinsic behaviour of a muscle fibre is still obscure. Dr. D. F. CHEESMAN (London) considered the role of structurally bound phosphate in muscular contraction, and reminded his audience that A.T.P. had been shown to be broken down during a single twitch in the frog sartorius. He described experiments which suggested that a transphosphorylation reaction occurred in the myofibrils, and hence there was some evidence that yet another energy-forming system was present. Turning to the anatomy of muscle, Dr. H. A. SISSONS (London) described some careful studies of the size of normal muscle-fibres; in measurement of fibre area he had used a squared-paper technique and had checked this by means of planimetry. He demonstrated a number of distribution curves of fibre area and discussed the difficulties which were likely to arise when muscle-fibre size was used as one indication of a disease process. CLINICAL AND GENETIC STUDIES
Much interest centred on the treatment of progressive muscular dystrophy with’Laevadosin’ (a nucleotide-nucleoside mixture). Mr. K. E. GUEST and Dr. W. H. S. THOMSON (Glasgow) had treated 59 cases of muscular dystrophy, 41 of the Duchenne variety, for a minimum of six months; 26 of their patients had improved, 23 improved but later relapsed, and 10 showed no improvement. Dr. Thomson suggested that serial estimations of the serum-aldolase and S.G.O.T. could be used to give an objective assessment of treatment. An attempt to design an objective technique of measurement