Covid-19’s second wave is upon us, and it could easily turn into a tsunami. I want patients to know that healthcare professionals are still here for you. Use whatever maritime […]
Year: 2020
Lily Copping: Medical students are also sometimes patients—we should incorporate this into our education
The Sharp Scratch team and I recently got together with Anne Stephenson, a South London GP, to chat about being both medical students and patients in our own right. In […]
Nick Scriven: We are entering another period of immense strain on everyone who works in our NHS
As England embarks on a second national lockdown, we need to reflect on how our hospitals are “feeling” and what we can hope for over the next weeks and months. […]
How self recorded PROMs can improve the management of patients with mental health disorders
Aalborg University Hospital – Psychiatry in the North Denmark region has pioneered a new approach to managing patients with schizophrenia and depression based on asking patients to routinely monitor and […]
Mary Daly: The missing voice in the covid-19 pandemic—an advocate for social care
The social care sector lacks a strong advocate, depriving it of both visibility and priority, says Mary Daly […]
We all need to debate death and dying, and consider our own deaths
“Everyone’s death is different,” writes Jennie Dear at the end of her book, What Does it Feel Like to Die? Inspiring New Insights into the Experience of Dying. Dear is […]
The consistency of machine learning and statistical models in predicting clinical risks of individual patients
“…Now, imagine a machine learning system with an understanding of every detail of that person’s entire clinical history and the trajectory of their disease…. With the clinician’s push of a […]
Counting the invisible costs of covid-19: the cancer pandemic
We need to count the previously invisible cost of covid-19 on people with cancer […]
Poland’s abortion ban: a crushing blow to reproductive rights
On 22 October 2020, the Constitutional Tribunal in Poland ruled that abortion on the grounds of fetal abnormality was unconstitutional, further restricting Poland’s already stringent 1993 abortion law. This verdict […]
Abuse against doctors must not be tolerated
Last week a letter signed by 435 GP practice staff on access to GP practices was published in The Times. The letter was drafted by a group of grass root GPs, […]