I was recently asked to give a brief talk on the role of a commissioner in integrated care. Chris Ham, Judith Smith, and Elizabeth Eastmure’s paper on this issue highlights […]
Columnists
Julian Sheather: Making health decisions in advance – how best to avoid your worst nightmare?
On coming into force, the Mental Capacity Act (MCA), by deftly drawing together common law and permitting, via new powers of attorney, the nomination of substitute health decision makers, looked […]
Richard Smith: UN meeting on NCDs – day two
Tuesday 20 September. Day two 7.10 Traffic is gridlocked near the UN building because so many streets are shut. Obama hits the UN today—not unfortunately the NCD meeting. […]
Richard Smith: A diary of the UN meeting
Monday 19 September. Day one 7.10 I arrive at the junction of 47 Street East and 2nd Avenue to meet the Pepsico people who are holding a breakfast meeting in […]
Richard Smith: A diary of the UN meeting on NCDs
Saturday 17 September. Day minus two 17.20 Arrive in New York. A bigger queue than ever at immigration. Do they really want visitors? After an hour I reach the booth. […]
Richard Smith: Should there be easier access to new drugs?
There is increasing pressure for drug regulators to provide quicker access to new drugs. The pressure comes from doctors, patients, politicians, and the drug industry. What is likely to happen? […]
David Kerr: The subject that dare not speak its name
Working in the NHS must sometimes feel like working for the United Nations. Whilst first impressions are that our own current team of overseas trainees are actually above average in terms […]
Richard Smith: Improving dementia care
The recent meeting of the Cambridge Health Network on dementia swung between pessimism and optimism, reflecting perhaps the national feeling. Dementia, said several speakers, is where cancer was 30 years […]
Richard Smith: Clinicians support a review of mammography
Five weeks ago I wrote about the difficulty I was having in finding somebody to speak in favour of mammography at a conference on controversies in breast cancer. I feared […]
Julian Sheather: Is prostitution really the answer?
I have recently been enjoying a brief flurry of reviews of Catherine Hakim’s Honey Money: The Power of Erotic Capital. Hakim’s book has been bounding up the notoriety charts, which […]