While the words “healthcare reform” are forbidden in Russia, healthcare is changing quickly. Over the past three years, three federal laws have been rewritten: the basic healthcare law, a law […]
Guest writers
Suchita Shah: Health as a gateway to global development
A week ago, I was writing about rights—in this particular instance, the right to safe water, having personally experienced the city of Santiago without water during my stay in Chile. […]
Richard Vize: Andy Burnham’s plans signify profound changes in the way the NHS is structured
With little media attention, shadow health secretary Andy Burnham has proposed scrapping clinical commissioning as part of a new round of NHS upheaval if Labour is returned to office. In […]
Sophie Petit-Zeman on UK DUETs: uncertainties as opportunities
“Our failure to confront uncertainty about the effects of treatment has resulted in the suffering and death of patients, sometimes on a massive scale.” This chilling statement comes from Iain […]
Vijaya Nath: Revalidation: opportunity or challenge?
On 3 December 2012, the UK was the first nation, and the General Medical Council (GMC) the first regulatory body, to implement large scale changes to the regulation of its […]
Jeremy Sare: The cannabis reclassification saga began shortly after 9/11
Although it may seem initially bathetic to put these events together, David Blunkett’s appearance before the Home Affairs Select Committee in October 2001 actually set in motion a dozen years […]
Candace Imison: Will 2013 be the year of meaningful public engagement with service change?
The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) is the latest to join the growing chorus of medical colleges calling for change in hospital services with RCS President Professor Williams’s statement launching […]
Jonny Martell: An anthropological view of care of elderly people
When viewed through the perspective offered by an anthropological lens, “care of elderly people” is an extraordinary phenomenon in Western culture. Reading the masterful survey of what we might learn […]
Saleyha Ahsan on providing medical care in Syria
It had been raining for three days solid before I arrived at Atme refugee camp, in North Syria. I was there with Rola*, a British Syrian doctor and medical co […]
Farah Kidy on volunteering in India with the Institute of Rural Health Studies
After years of planning and plotting, I was finally getting ready to head off to India. This was going to be a voyage of discovery; I was going to explore […]