There is no more baffled and frustrated group of law enforcers than the customs officers who oversee the massive and legal importation of khat into Britain. Although the plant’s […]
Month: October 2010
Joe Collier: Help to allow terminally ill patients to die
In the UK surveys show that the public at large believe that, within carefully delineated safeguards, doctors should be allowed to assist intellectually competent adults with terminal illness to die […]
Ana Rita Pedro on health literacy in Europe
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 […]
Peter Lapsley: Unfair charges
The decision by the Scottish Parliament to follow Wales and Northern Ireland, and to abolish prescription charges from April next year leaves the Department of Health out on a limb […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review, 18 October 2010
JAMA 13 Oct 2010 Vol 304 Cardiac surgery was once considered too bloody even to contemplate: now it is commonplace. But there is still no agreement in practice about how […]
Richard Smith: Medical schools to close?
Until now medical schools have had it easy. They have lots of high quality applicants, most students graduate, and all of them can find jobs. Suddenly, as for many others […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Charge the sick
Why not charge people for being ill? A satirical letter in the Irish Times, recommended a monthly levy on illness. Declan Moriarty suggested a sliding scale so that MS sufferers […]
Rebecca Coombes: Pen mightier than the scalpel…
Forget the Man Booker prize, that’s over for another year. Instead medico-literary eyes are on a £25k prize set to be awarded by a well-endowed medical charity next month. The […]
Martin Carroll on clean water and sanitation: leaders must walk the walk, talk the talk
We often refer to water as “the stuff of life.” Without water, our cells would shrivel and die, our brain function would be progressively impaired, and we would eventually find […]
Research highlights – 15 October 2010
“Research highlights” is a weekly round-up of research papers appearing in the print BMJ. We start off with this week’s research questions, before providing more detail on some individual research […]