Have you heard the phrase “whole of government and whole of society?” If you haven’t you soon will. It’s the summary of the formula for fixing many of the world’s […]
Richard Smith
Richard Smith was the editor of The BMJ until 2004.
Richard Smith: Medical journals: a gaggle of golden geese
I used to be part of running a course for editors of medical journals, and on each course we’d encounter editors, usually distinguished professors, who worked evenings and weekends on […]
Richard Smith: A bad bad week for access
I was once the editor of the BMJ and chief executive of the BMJ Publishing Group. I work for a $100 billion company. I’m an unpaid professor at both Warwick […]
Richard Smith: What I learnt about non-communicable disease in one afternoon
Most of my work is concerned with non-communicable disease (NCD) in low and middle income countries, so I’ve got to know a fair bit about the subject. But yesterday I […]
Richard Smith: A way to provide palliative care globally
Palliative care globally lacks funding, professionals, and medicines (particularly morphine) and suffers from policy neglect, said David Praill, chief executive of Help the Hospices, opening a meeting in London on […]
Richard Smith: Reducing the world’s blood pressure
What do you think is the risk factor that causes the most deaths globally? Until I saw the data I’d have answered tobacco. But in fact it’s high blood pressure. […]
Richard Smith: It’s hard, perhaps impossibly hard, to be a good doctor
How would you feel if your patient said to you: “I want you to be my Virgil, leading me through my purgatory or inferno, pointing out the sights as we […]
Richard Smith: Your chance to do good and have fun in one night
This is a shameless plug for a charity comedy night on 31 May where we have the two great doctor comics, Harry Hill and Phil Hammond, Ian Roberts (the laughing […]
Richard Smith: Why I won’t be retiring to the seaside
Taxi drivers rank alongside hairdressers as sources of deep information about communities, and the one who drove me on Sunday morning from Padstow on the Cornish Coast to Bodmin Parkway […]
Richard Smith: Will economic problems finally fix London healthcare?
There were no dissenters from the view at last week’s Cambridge Health Network meeting that London has chronic overcapacity in its acute hospitals. It’s been the case for decades. One […]