After the government’s spending review, the NHS has just over two years at best to stabilise rapidly deteriorating finances and declining standards of patient care. At that point the harsh reality […]
Month: February 2016
Richard Lehman’s journal review—8 February 2016
NEJM 4 Feb 2016 Vol 374 Renal altruism 411 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Failing that, consider live […]
Henry Murphy: Resignation to Jeremy
Another blog about the junior doctor’s contract, another march, and another strike. What is left to be said? The argument has been detailed in every way; with eloquence, with anger, […]
Junior doctors’ strike February 2016: Live blog
This week, junior doctors in England will be taking industrial action for the second time in as many months after failing to reach agreement with the government over their proposed […]
Tim Albert: What price a patient’s expertise?
For the last 18 months I have been doing some work as an Expert by Experience for the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Despite the job title—which has the ring of […]
William Cayley: Complexity and care
Words that sound wonderful can come back to haunt you. As a case in point, I recently responded to Elizabeth Wortley’s eloquent blog “Please refrain from using that kind of […]
Deborah Kirkham: Abortion in America—are church and state really separate?
Never talk about religion, politics, or sex the old adage goes. The continuing debate about abortion covers all three, which may go someway to explaining the fervor with which all […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Contemptuous
As I have previously described, delaying tactics in a conflict are known as Fabian tactics, after Quintus Fabius Maximus, who used them against Hannibal’s Carthaginians during the Second Punic War, […]
Richard Smith: Commissioning needs to be about all public services not just health
Parliament has three times relegislated the commissioner provider split—in 1990, 2002, and 2012, said Stephen Dorrell, secretary of state for health from 1995-97, in a talk to the Imperial College […]
When Breath Becomes Air: A book review by Salil Patel
When Dr Paul Kalanithi (pictured) was 36, and with most of his neurosurgical training complete, his life was finally beginning to take the form he had anticipated. Just as pieces […]