It’s great to see patient safety getting such a prominent focus on bmj.com this Christmas with support for the charity Lifebox. Lifebox’s first aim is trying to ensure a pulse oximeter gets […]
Columnists
Marge Berer: Jingle pills indeed
Many years ago now, when news of female sterilisation first came out, Catholic priests in Puerto Rico and other Catholic countries preached from their pulpits against women being sterilised. As […]
Richard Smith: Hauling the private sector onboard to combat diabetes
The golden phrase for countering non-communicable disease (NCD) is that we need a “whole of government and whole of society approach.” An important step on that path is obviously for […]
Martin McShane: Adapting
Every two months I get to sit down with the GP Chair and Chief Operating Officer from each of the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in Lincolnshire. Ever since the reforms […]
Tiago Villanueva: The European union of general practitioners
Whilst Italy’s government was falling, general practitioners from 21 countries convened in Turin on 11 and 12 November for the autumn meeting of the European Union of General Practitioners (UEMO), which […]
Martin McShane: Execution
The operating framework for the NHS has now been published. Reading through the detail I was struck by the tasks laid at the door of PCT clusters. These transitional organisations […]
David Kerr: Complaints via social media
Social media seems to be the modern equivalent of the stocks. The main objective of the stocks was public humiliation. Nowadays, any member of the public can use social media […]
Richard Smith: The happiness questionnaire
My son, a chef, is part of a “pop up think tank” of people under 35 working on happiness. They are gathering evidence through a questionnaire, and I thought that […]
Martin McShane: Integrated reflections concluded
Here is my third and final blog on the USA trip: After Seattle’s integrated care organisations, we visited CalPERS. They fund $6.7bn worth of healthcare for 1.3 million people (roughly twice […]
Desmond O’Neill: One hundred years of flautitude
No geriatrician could pass up on the opportunity: a performance of a flute concerto written by a living composer in his 100th year by one of the greatest orchestras in […]