A year ago NHS commissioning was ripped up by its roots, divided up and then pushed back into the soil. Like the plants in my garden that get such rough […]
Month: April 2014
Nick Harvey: There’s now a cure for hepatitis C… but the poor can’t afford it
Picture the scenario: a disease is destroying your liver and there’s a chance you will die. There’s a cure, but you can’t have it as it costs more than you […]
The BMJ Today: GSK and paying doctors to speak on its behalf
On 17 December last year, UK pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline, made a bold pledge. From 2016, the company said, it will stop paying doctors to speak on its behalf or to […]
Richard Hurley: Why the food industry doesn’t find a sugar tax so sweet
A flurry of media attention followed England’s Chief Medical Officer Sally Davies’s recent admission that a sugar tax may have to be considered to try to reverse the overweight and […]
Tessa Richards: “All I ask is that you listen”
If healthcare was a patient, the diagnosis would be multimorbidity. There is a near terminal mix of fragmentation of services, failure to listen and respond to patients concerns, lack of […]
Jen Gunter: The Tamiflu talisman
Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) has been prescribed for my son, Oliver, multiple times. It’s possible he has taken this drug more than anyone. Oliver was born at 26 weeks gestation and was […]
The BMJ Today: One way to tackle street drinking
The road in which I live connects a long, shady stretch of green space, with a few benches, and a rather grubby inner London high street that seems to have […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—14 April 2014
NEJM 10 Apr 2014 Vol 370 OL A deadly virus has been conquered. Hepatitis C genotype 1 can be cleared with a simple oral combination treatment, and compared to that, […]
Birte Twisselmann: European Union—live
As a three-times member of the national judging panel for the UK winner, I was invited to attend the awards ceremony for the EU Health Prize for Journalists 2013, at […]
The BMJ Today: Staying ahead of getting behind
I live in London, a city where most things are fast paced. Coffees are made to go, walking is more of an Olympic sprint, and our time is valued with […]