Burnout in hospital-based medical consultants in the New Zealand public health system.

Aim: To assess the prevalence and severity of burnout in hospital-based medical consultants, and investigate associated demographic and professional characteristics.

Method: Utilising standardised measures of burnout (Maslach Burnout Inventory) and job satisfaction (Job Satisfaction Scale) this cross-sectional study recruited 267 consultants working in a large tertiary hospital in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Results: Seventy-one percent of all eligible participants were recruited.

Written advice can provide a safe and acceptable alternative to new patient assessment for selected referrals to haematologists.

Objective: To measure the safety and acceptability of providing written advice (WA) for selected patients referred to a haematology service, as an alternative to inpatient or outpatient assessment.

Design, Setting And Participants: Review of the initial management and subsequent course of patients newly referred to a tertiary referral hospital in Christchurch, New Zealand, between 16 October 2003 and 8 June 2006. Structured questionnaires were sent to all referring doctors and patients recently managed with WA.

EOG as a monitor of desferrioxamine retinal toxicity.

Iron overload caused by blood transfusion-dependent anaemia usually results in lethal cardiac toxicity unless treated by iron-chelation therapy. Chelation therapy with desferrioxamine (DFO) is well established and widely used to remove excess iron. Unfortunately, visual disorders have been recorded after DFO infusion.