In 1960, Portugal’s infant mortality rate was 77.5 deaths per 1000 live births, which is comparable to that of many Sub Saharan African countries today. In 2010, Portugal’s infant mortality rate was 2.5 deaths per 1000 live births, one of the lowest in Europe and in the world. more…

It takes vision, passion for healthcare, compassion for those who suffer, knowledge, a dedicated team of experts, commitment from all stakeholders, and experience of what it means to be a patient to plan a new strategy for the healthcare sector. These are all missing from what the Greek Ministry of Health has done for the last two years.

What the Ministry of Health has achieved up until now are just separate agreements with different interest groups of the healthcare sector, each fighting fiercely to safeguard their own benefits. Thus, pharmacists have successfully safeguarded their profession, and doctors are allowed to continue practising privately. more…

The eurozone is in crisis, Britain’s embassy has been stormed in Iran, youth unemployment is above a million, and the US Republicans are struggling to field a presidential candidate whose grasp of foreign policy extends beyond being able to see Russia from their back garden. So guess what the top question was on BBC Question Time last night? What should happen to Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson after he called for striking public sector workers to be shot in front of their families? more…

You may be aware that the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), BMJ Editor-in-Chief Fiona Godlee, and the Campaign for Greener Healthcare hosted a meeting of health professionals at the RCN on Saturday as part of the Wave demonstration.  Here’s my contribution:

“The time is now.  As health professionals we have a duty of care, a duty to remind people we have no right to break a long established deal – that we leave this world in a better state than we found it – for everyone. more…

Two years ago health ministers in the Czech Republic decided to focus on the financial sustainability of health systems during their six months at the EU presidency helm. Was this foresight? Did the ministers know what the bankers did not- that economic Armageddon was round the corner? Either way, the financial crisis was certainly concentrating minds at their recent conference on how countries can continue to meet their rising healthcare costs. more…

It is very good to see Changing Faces nominated as the BMA charity of the year, both because it is an outstanding organisation and because the nomination recognises a reality of which too many people are unaware.

I know Changing Faces well. Run by its founder, the indefatigable James Partridge, it supports and represents people with disfigurements to the face, hand or body. It is imaginative, innovative, collaborative, and a model of good governance. more…

In October last year we announced the UK Forum on Health Care Priority Setting at the 7th meeting of the International Society on Priorities in Health Care. The forum is funded by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement and is organised by the Institute of Health and Society at Newcastle University. more…

Ole Frithjof Norheim and Cam Donaldson (pictured) sum up lessons learned from the 7th International conference on priority setting in health care. more…

I have recently been reading a report on ethical issues in public health from the Nuffield Foundation on Bioethics. It is a lovely document, subtle and interrogative, delightfully rich, as all good thought should be, in unanswered questions. more…

With NHS budget increases levelling off pre-credit crunch and now with the crunch itself, there has never been a more important time, in recent years at least, to be thinking about how to manage scarce healthcare resources for maximum gain to patients and the wider community. more…