So there we were, early Wednesday afternoon, preparations under way for the evening surgeries, when the phones started to ring off the hook. Almost simultaneously we got an email from the PCT telling us that 143 children from the local primary and infant schools were sick with an as yet unidentified viral illness. Some were being swabbed for swine flu and we were to have a low threshold to swab any child we saw, especially as small children with swine flu don’t always fit the diagnostic algorithm we’d been asked to use until now. And yes, before you tell me, I know I’m meant to call it H1N1 but no one out in the community actually does. more…

“Health Warning” by Deborah Kirklin

When I am a patient I will rarely take my medications

But will always want my script instantly filled.

And I shall spend hours reading all the health advice the Daily Mail has to offer

And be sure to share it with my doctor, in detail and backed up by internet references. more…

Half a lifetime ago I went to Australia for my medical elective, a joyous interlude just before finals that allows doctors-to-be to savour, for one last time, the freedom of life as a student. Eight weeks is barely time to get over the jetlag let alone to adjust to the stark and breathtaking landscapes that unfurl in any journey across this large and mystifying country. Yet long enough to leave the lasting impression that no matter how impressive the delights of Sydney and Melbourne and Australia’s other cities and towns, this is a country only a blink away from submission to its own awesome forces of nature.

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The inhabitants of the British Isles, along with much of Europe, are currently basking in glorious weather. Warm, sunny, BBQ-inspiring, smile-evoking, relaxation-inducing, glorious weather. The kind of weather that leads lesser mortals like me to even share guilty jokes about not everything about global warming being bad. more…