For a medic still just under thirty, I have deviated from the traditional medical career path several times. Working as a healthcare management consultant, setting up a start up enterprise and being on secondment to the Department of Health have broadened my understanding of the healthcare landscape.

The controversy over the planned NHS reforms has got me thinking about clinical leadership.  Empowered clinical leaders will be crucial to implementing the reforms and the NHS should look to other industries for lessons on developing future leaders.  Whilst junior doctors are treated as bottom of a hierarchy, their private sector counterparts are nurtured, trained and valued. Retaining and investing in talent is big business. Other industries wouldn’t dream of labelling the next generation of leaders with the pejorative term “junior.” Yet this is exactly what we do to future medical leaders. more…

The following account is based on an email I wrote to my friends and family on 23 February, describing my experiences working as a house officer at Christchurch Public Hospital when the devastating earthquake struck on 22 February 2011. more…

Medical students and doctors belonging to the newly created organisation “Big Society NHS” organised a Valentine’s Day themed protest against the Health and Social Care Bill, currently being debated in parliament. The bill, if passed through parliament, would pave the way for free-market style reforms within the NHS. The demonstration was held outside the Sherfield building, where secretary of state for health Andrew Lansley was delivering a speech to mark the opening of the Imperial College School for public health. more…

I was considering what I might learn (if anything) over the Christmas period on a chilly cycle home last night. It has been an intermittent and nagging thought for some weeks.

Most of my non-doctor friends would find the idea of Christmas learning ridiculous. But the end of my genitourinary medicine placement looms. There are resolutions to think about, and also a slightly bald looking e-portfolio. Surely during a long weekend of overindulgence, freezing weather, family overload, and bad telly, I might suddenly have the urge to learn something. But what? more…

So the time has come for junior doctors to plunge themselves into a specialist career. Should this be time for excitement? Time to step up to commitment? Or time to reflect on my plan E or F, as what follows may highlight that having a plan B in this game may not be enough. more…

At the recent European Health Forum Gastein, a group of “young Gasteiners” blogged live from the talks. A selection of the blogs are on the BMJ blogsite. Tessa Richards, assistant editor, BMJ, also attended the conference. You can read her blog and introduction to the “young Gasteiners” here.

Lots of information and data on an ageing population were presented at the lunch time workshop on ageing and disease prevention. The speakers managed to make already well known data look new and interesting and that’s what I will try to present to you in the following bullet points. more…

At the recent European Health Forum Gastein, a group of “young Gasteiners” blogged live from the talks. A selection of the blogs are on the BMJ blogsite. Tessa Richards, assistant editor, BMJ, also attended the conference. You can read her blog and introduction to the “young Gasteiners” here.

Health literacy is a big challenge in Europe nowadays. It is the capacity of people to meet the complex demands of health in modern society, so why is it so important? Research has shown that people with low health literacy are less knowledgeable about the importance of preventive health measures, they have a higher risk of hospital admission, and the additional costs of limited health literacy range from 3-5% of the total health cost per year. more…

At the recent European Health Forum Gastein, a group of “young Gasteiners” blogged live from the talks. A selection of the blogs are on the BMJ blogsite. Tessa Richards, assistant editor, BMJ, also attended the conference. You can read her blog and introduction to the “young Gasteiners” here.

Being a researcher you are, by the very nature of your socialisation within academia somewhat skeptical about commercial sponsorship of sessions within policy or research conferences. When coming to Gastein this year for the first time in the framework of the Young Gastein Forum, this view was at first much confirmed. Simply looking at the program, which really was a loose compilation of very distinct topics, makes you wonder how did the organisers end up with this set of issues if not for pleasing benevolent (session) sponsors? Given the former I went to my first session with rather limited expectations. more…

At the recent European Health Forum Gastein, a group of “young Gasteiners” blogged live from the talks. A selection of the blogs are on the BMJ blogsite. Tessa Richards, assistant editor, BMJ, also attended the conference. You can read her blog and introduction to the “young Gasteiners” here.

GOAL! Definitely the best, most interesting lunch I’ve ever been to, hands down.

I didn’t really know what to expect from the session, so when the five main speakers jogged in to the sound of a referee’s whistle dressed in blue-and-black-striped football shirts and shorts, I had an inkling that this wasn’t going to be your average boring business lunch. more…

Seeing the call for medics to attend this year’s Camp for Climate Action, I was keen to lend support for a worthy cause. I’m usually a reluctant responder when it comes to calls for a doctor in the house, however, so I elected to attend under the guise of journalism and take on medic duties only as a last resort.

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