Trying to define a good doctor is as elusive a task as trying to define a good life or a good death. Like good lives and deaths, good doctors will […]
Columnists
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Fabian tactics
My pursuit of words that twist are repeatedly balked by a desire to comment on the way in which Jeremy Hunt continues to twist and turn over the junior hospital […]
William Cayley: Is the Good Samaritan the wrong metaphor to use for doctors?
A story from the Christian New Testament has provided the literary namesake for countless medical facilities, as well as legal and ethical principles guiding care for those in need, but […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Keep on twisting
I don’t know why I let Jeremy Hunt, the BMA, and Acas get in the way last week, when I was progressing with my exploration of different types of twisting. […]
Richard Smith: A 45 minute play on death
Caryl Churchill’s 45 minute play on death at the National Theatre begins with people at a drinks party after a funeral. Nobody is much upset. “The waters close over very […]
James Raftery: Cancer drugs fund—consultation on bringing it under NICE
Conflict of interest: the proposals reviewed here are similar to those advocated in a 2014 BMJ editorial “Reforming the Cancer Drugs Fund” to which I was a co-author. I have […]
Richard Smith: Four reasons why we may not be responding in the right way to hypertension in low and middle income countries
Should we be responding to hypertension in low and middle income countries? Of course we should. Hypertension kills 10 million people a year prematurely, and 80% of those deaths occur […]
Neville Goodman’s Metaphor Watch: Pandora’s box and double-edged swords
From the Holy Grail (qv) to Pandora’s Box. Pandora’s Box has mutated. When Pandora opened her box, the evils flew out and could not be put back in. All that […]
Richard Smith: Big data, Twitter, the NHS, and the junior doctors’ dispute
Big data, as we all know, is going to save us. Used well it will make health systems solvent, introduce immortality, cool the planet, bring peace in the Middle East, […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Conciliatory
The junior doctors (pictured) vote to strike. The BMA seeks to resolve the dispute with Jeremy Hunt through the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service Acas. Not before time. He rejects […]