The King’s Fund paper “How cold will it be?” published in July 2009, discussed three financial scenarios for the NHS. The toughest was a 2% reduction in funding for 3 […]
Columnists
Julian Sheather: Is happiness a mental disorder?
Although undoubtedly a fine publication, I think it is probably fair to say that it is not every day that the Journal of Medical Ethics puts in an appearance in […]
Richard Smith: Now happiness is declared a disease
The number of diseases seems to be increasing dramatically with the arrival of conditions like social phobia, attention deficit disorder, chronic procrastination syndrome, and female sexual arousal disorder. Now this […]
Desmond O’Neill reviews “Taking the keys away”
If geriatricians had a pound for every time an adult child said that it wasn’t safe for their older parent to go home from hospital, their financial standing would improve […]
James Raftery: What’s happening with NICE? The cancer drugs fund and “value based pricing”
The reports that NICE is to be stripped of its powers to recommend against NHS use of drugs prompts questions about the Coalition Government’s health plans. Some indication of what […]
Richard Smith: informed and uniformed consent
Informed consent has degenerated from an important and respectful act to a cumbersome, meaningless regulatory process that impedes research. That bluntly is the opinion of many researchers, and so a […]
Richard Smith on editors’ conflicts of interest
We are all more interested in the conflicts of interests of others than we are in our own, and editors are no exception. Having preached to authors and reviewers on […]
Tracey Koehlmoos: Colorado and the Joint Cochrane Campbell Colloquium
Now that I am out of the closet about being a Cochrane reviewer, I will further come clean on the fact that I have attended the Cochrane Colloquia for the […]
Martin McShane: Transition
We did something a bit different today as an executive team. We used the “goldfish bowl” technique to explore how to support the transition from PCT-led to Consortia-based commissioning. I […]
Sandra Lako on the importance of prevention
A few weeks ago a child came to the hospital with classic signs of tetanus: a locked jaw, rigidity of the muscles, and jerking of the body. The diagnosis was […]