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…

A couple of weeks ago a doctor friend from California was visiting me in London. Shortly before her arrival date swine flu fever was gripping the world’s media, with California proving a hotbed for new cases. And, illogically I’ll admit, I felt a certain disquiet that a doctor from the first US State to suffer a swine flu death would shortly arrive in my already less than healthy home. more…

Albert Camus argued that anyone who chooses life over death is an absurd hero. Absurd because Camus could see no logical reason why anyone would choose the pain and suffering that living even the most blessed of lives entails when ultimately the struggle to stay alive will surely fail. And heroic because, in full knowledge of this truth, and in full knowledge of the burden of pain and loss that staying alive will inevitably entail, a person who chooses life and not death somehow finds the courage to make that choice. more…

Yes, I know patients don’t actually complain of being normal, but isn’t there sometimes a not so small voice in your head telling you that this is, effectively, what’s happening? Why, you wonder, is this person surprised that if they continue to wear tight shoes their corns will keep returning? And why, oh why, do they think it makes sense to ask you for advice rather than the local shoe shop assistant?

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So how are you coping? Are you managing to make the right choices in these difficult times? And what if you make the wrong decision? Do you worry you might be sued, or worse still that the care people receive will suffer? And no, I’m not talking about the stresses and strains of clinical practice, pressing as these can be in an ever litigious society. Nor am I referring to widespread anxieties about rising unemployment, including medical. Instead I’m talking about the admittedly niche ethics angst that is part and parcel of a modern journal editor’s lot. more…

So here’s the thing. No matter how interesting (or otherwise) medical school deans and research grant making bodies  find the work done by medical humanities scholars and educators, the bottom line is (almost) always, what’s in it for patients? How will teaching students using art and literature make them better doctors; how will the insights offered by historians, anthropologists, philosophers etc help ensure that patients get better, more affordable, more appropriate care? Why, in other words, given all the other calls on my time and resources, should I support you and your work rather than focussing on biomedical research? more…

If you’re in the London region you might be interested in this symposium on medicine and the humanities. Focussing on literature, art and music it features some excellent speakers. In keeping with other RSM events, lively debate is sure to follow.

http://www.rsm.ac.uk/academ/hsg106.php

Venue: The Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 0AE

Speakers to include: Stephen Golding, Aileen Adams, Richard Hull and Anne Hargreaves.