Kamran Abbasi, Editor in chief, The BMJ Delivering impactful science and journalism
Holding politicians accountable In the UK, we continue to influence government and health policy, 8,9 by championing evidence-based decision making, patient and public partnership, and openness and transparency. In 2022, The BMJ’s UK Covid Inquiry Series highlighted how the political response to the covid-19 pandemic often failed to properly consider science. The articles 10 raised important questions about the transparency and accountability of political decision making during the pandemic. They question the government’s resistance to scrutiny, lack of transparency, and failure to correct mistakes as knowledge and experience accumulated. Modelled after the UK Covid Inquiry Series, The BMJ’s Canada Covid Series called for a national inquiry and accountability for the failings in Canada’s response to covid-19. That week, four out of five of the top-read analysis articles were from that series, and 52% of The BMJ Analysis readers were from Canada. It received lots of attention online, in the news, and the research community, and led to a statement provided by the office of Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos. 11 The UK issue covered points that question the evidence behind government decisions, 12 all of which has been submitted as evidence to the inquiry.
Impact, influence, and healthcare expertise are all the mainstay for global organisations, and we are benchmarked against the very best. Through the voice and global recognition of our flagship journal, The BMJ , we stimulate informed debate and encourage better medical research and education that lead to improved patient outcomes. Our Investigations Unit’s work adds to The BMJ ’s reputation as a world-renowned agent of change. Over the past year our investigative journalism has: Raised questions over lack of “substantial evidence” for FDA approved antibiotic, Recarbrio. 3 We highlighted the deterioration of safety standards at the FDA 4 and warned of an era where drug effectiveness becomes an afterthought in regulatory approval. Uncovered that the National Health Service (NHS) paid private hospitals £2bn in the pandemic to meet NHS demand, but that some private hospitals still treated more private patients than NHS ones, 5 reflecting a lack of transparency and accountability between public funding and private delivery of healthcare. Led an investigation in partnership with The Guardian , finding that hospital trusts fail to protect staff and patients against sexual assault and harassment in the NHS. 6 Our investigation revealed that only one in ten NHS trusts has a dedicated policy to deal with sexual assault and harassment, leading to a call in Parliament for a new and improved sexual complaints system. 7
Influencing with evidence-based advocacy Showing impact at select committee governmental level
T he BMJ is also influencing parliamentary select committees, with one such example occurring on 21 February 2022. Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England, gave evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee at the beginning of the inquiry into prevention in health and social care. 13 At the hearing, Whitty discussed an editorial 14 he co- wrote for The BMJ with other chief medical officers. In the editorial, Whitty and colleagues argued for restoring and extending secondary prevention in the NHS, highlighting that such efforts had declined during the pandemic. With further work underway to evaluate the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the United States and Canada, as well as a Commission on the Future of the NHS, our science and journalism is focused on achieving impact in clinical practice and policy making.
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