Attending the graduation ceremony for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Child Health Diploma programme in Ramallah I fantasised over the effect of the course on children’s health. We want to see the following: thriving, well nourished infants, lively and independent minded children, healthy teenagers with high self esteem, disabled youngsters who are well rehabilitated and integrated in society … all topics being covered in our teaching. more…

Finding out what’s wrong with a patient is the ultimate challenge for doctors, and relies on a multitude of factors. The other day I encountered an enigmatic patient. He arrived on the ward with a mild fever, abdominal pain and fatigue. more…

Spectator blogger Melanie Phillips attracts lots of comments after flagging up a “big row” between the BMJ and Israel lobbying organisation Honest Reporting. The journal published five Israeli-themed articles last week, one of which concluded that Honest Reporting had targeted a hostile email campaign towards the BMJ five years ago. more…

Anyone writing a piece on either Israel or the occupied Palestinian territories (the official UN title) will be exposed to a wealth comments from each side with often, little appearance of understanding the other’s perspective. This was my experience following a previous BMJ blog on 5th January. more…

Someone less than familiar with Israel might wonder how during this crisis we handle Israeli Arab patients who walk around the hospital in a bright red kaffieh and use the helicopter pad as a place to pray. After all, we are in the midst of a war just a few miles from the hospital involving an Arab Islamist group bent not only the killing of Jews, but publicly and proudly sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state. more…

My hospital, the main institution serving southern Israel, has come under rocket fire since the very first day of the war. As a result, there have been far reaching changes in its functioning. Extra staff: doctors, nurses and orderlies have been added to the emergency room on every shift. All leave has been cancelled. more…

Despite all of the problems working as  a doctor in southern Israel during these trying times, life must go on. For example, I really had to get my car serviced today.  So despite all the pressure on me to get to work, on my way in I stopped at the Honda garage just a few blocks from the hospital. While signing in, I suddenly heard the eerie and very scary sound of the air raid sirens which go off (usually ) when there is an incoming missile. There really is nothing like it. It sounds like a nightmare but the only problem is you know you aren’t dreaming. more…

Arriving in Ramallah in December from a freezing UK, both the temperature and the welcome were very warm. The purpose was a regular visit to the students on the collaborative Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and Al Quds Medical school postgraduate teaching programme on child health, and to run an OSCE for the first group of graduates to upgrade them from Certificate to Palestinian Child Health Diploma. more…

“By far the most dangerous foe we have to fight is apathy – indifference from whatever cause, not from a lack of knowledge, but from carelessness, from absorption in other pursuits, from a contempt bred of self satisfaction”
William Osler (1849-1919)

Dominique Jean Larrey was strongly affected by the misfortunes of others. He would often describe how serious disasters afflicted his soul, filling him with profound grief. Late into the eighteenth century the skilled but sensitive physician was assigned to be divisional Surgeon-Major in the army of the Rhine. It was enough for him to observe the poor medical organization of the French army, and its intolerable toll, for a revolutionary concept to form, that would alter military surgery forever. more…