But whatever passions such matters raise here can you imagine the furore that the French government has stirred up in its foodie population in announcing a scheme to stem the rise in obesity by using colour coded warnings. The five-colour grading starts at green for healthy foods and runs through to red which are dubbed best avoided or consumed in small quantities – including, Mon Dieu, chocolate and cakes. Needless to say the country’s 4,500 traditional chocolatiers and pâtissiers are up in arms lobbying ministers and doubtless planning blockades of Channel ports. Although come to think of it a wall of chocolate at Calais does have some appeal.
Doctors’ dilemmas
While we have had our collective heads down in recent weeks engrossed in the ARF debacle, what the GDC say, what the BDA say and most recently the way in which Dental Protection have waded into the controversy, our medic colleagues have been having a bit of a pasting themselves.
A recent survey revealed that one in 10 doctors still use sunbeds despite their assumed knowledge of the risks of skin cancer, while one in three sunbathes in order to get a tan. Perhaps that’s why they always look so healthy when you sit opposite them feeling all wan and pasty. It is rather an unfair question to ask. I mean it is quite acceptable to have a little bit of sun (healthy indeed - vitamin D and all that) in the same way that it’s sort-of alright to have little bit of chocolate, and some alcohol, and…will we eventually end up like politicians having to live our lives in the public gaze and never daring to reveal that we once gorged on Danish pastries on a trip to Paris?
No no-claims
As if that wasn’t enough, another analysis, this time of motor insurance claims, has disclosed that surgeons are only just ahead (don’t drive too close behind) of GPs as being the most likely to make a claim for a road accident. Checking over 2m claims it transpires that the medics are nearly 100 times more likely to cause an accident than, say, a building society clerk.
For every 1,000 surgeons who drive a car, 361 made an at-fault claim in the past five years, compared with just 3.5 building society clerks, the research found. The figures also show that the top 10 occupations registering an at-fault claim were all, with one exception, connected to the healthcare profession. I know you want to know; we come in ninth. Why so many mishaps is difficult to fathom. Maybe they just had the sun in their eyes?