In this new era of GP led NHS commissioning, I saw a young GP on the television. She was interviewed to sample a voice of professional support and enthusiasm for […]
Guest writers
Deborah Kirklin: Mid Staffs—would you have been a whistleblower?
The latest Medical Humanities poll asks readers a simple but searching question: if you witnessed unaddressed failings in local healthcare provision, would you feel confident and secure enough to whistle […]
Charlotte Elder: A call for a bit of honesty
Before a career move to paediatrics I was a GP trainee. Whilst brainstorming what topics we were going to cover in our VTS half day release, I suggested that we […]
Scott Fraser: Do doctors have a responsibility to lead on climate change?
When learning biology for my school exams (longer ago than I imagine but not so many years ago) I clearly remember that atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) was rounded down to […]
Magdalena Kincaid: Basic surgical skills on the Mount of Olives—Part 2
The third Basic Surgical Skills Course for Palestinian trainees at Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH) in East Jerusalem concluded on a hot afternoon last week. The major achievement this year was […]
Peter Bailey: Galley slaves, rebel!
Jeremy Hunt’s speech to the King’s Fund on 23 May made me wonder if someone in the Department of Health had had an “Oh my God!” moment. A gut clenching, […]
Martin Roland: Reorganising GP care—back to the future
There seemed something familiar about the secretary of state’s announcements about general practice last week. Jeremy Hunt says that care is too often disjointed and he wants to give GPs […]
Tara Lamont: Finding things to stop doing…the inverse evidence law?
Early exponents of evidence based medicine put forward an optimistic view of future healthcare, where the availability of robust information would allow clinicians to select the most effective treatments—and to […]
Magdalena Kincaid: Basic surgical training on the Mount of Olives
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) team has been here before, yet nothing from past experience can possibly prepare for being swept up by overwhelming excitement of entering […]
Margaret McCartney: Clinical trial company tempts patients with free health screening
When buses in Glasgow started to come with posters asking if people were “Concerned about diabetes?” with an image of an older woman, a freephone number, and webpage for people […]