For the first time in more than a decade I’m skipping Edinburgh in August with its international, fringe, and book festivals. It seemed like a good idea at the time. […]
Month: August 2016
Ahmed Rashid: Medical careers—it’s what you make of it
The first year of medical postgraduate training, known in the UK as foundation year one (or previously as the “pre-registration house officer” year), is a decisive time for junior doctors. […]
Jean-Hervé Bradol: Humanitarian emergency in northeast Nigeria
Several days ago I returned from Borno state in northeast Nigeria, where a catastrophic humanitarian emergency is quietly unfolding. I was there to assess the situation and help set up […]
William Cayley: Happy to be healthy
Drawing on a variety of demonstrated correlations between happiness (or “wellbeing”) and health, John Appleby recently argued that “improving individual, and hence national, wellbeing might best be achieved through improving […]
Matthias Wienold: Innovations that work—new tools for patients’ participation in research
Recently I was asked to identify a patient driven innovation for a workshop at the 7th Global Patients Congress. The title was “Patient organisation led innovation—what works?”. The innovation I chose […]
Martin Kaminski: What I’ll miss about the NHS
As another first Wednesday in August approaches, I feel pensive and wistful that this year I won’t be spending changeover day in the heart of the National Health Service. Although […]
David Hughes: London, Zika, and the Rio Olympics
I remember clearly the night of the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony. I was team doctor for the Australian women’s basketball team, the Opals. The Australian Olympic Team (AOT) usually […]
Helen McKenna: The consequences of living within your means
The technicality (or “administrative error” as the National Audit Office described it) that enabled the Department of Health to avoid breaching expenditure controls set by parliament may have spared it […]
Rammya Mathew and Kate Birrell: A radical approach to end of life care
Death and dying are inevitable parts of life. They are not primarily medical events, yet the status quo is to medicalise the dying process and hand over responsibility for the […]
Tessa Richards: “Therapeutic relationships”—prized but hard to deliver
I hate to think of what I’ve cost the NHS since I was diagnosed with cancer in 2004. This year alone I’d need to factor in 12 outpatient appointments, seven […]