John Milton’s sonnet “On his blindness,” expresses the sense of powerlessness, frustration, and even guilt that many feel in responding to situations beyond their control, where their ability for active […]
Guest writers
Laughter on the crisis line: What is humor’s appropriate place in mental healthcare?
Alessandra Suuberg considers the role of humor in treating or coping with mental distress […]
Sam Allen: The women working in health and care look after us, it’s time we looked after them
There is an often trotted out statistic that women make up more than three-quarters of the NHS workforce. It’s one of those facts that is used so often that it’s […]
Patient centred care in a post-covid world
Like our sickest covid-19 patients, the NHS has been on life support since March. Many routine and necessary health services were put on hold. Retired nurses and doctors returned to the […]
Katharine Lawrence: Digital empathy in the age of coronavirus
The covid-19 pandemic has radically altered how we provide care to our patients, propelling us into the world of virtual healthcare delivery at a dizzying pace. Telehealth and its digital […]
Arriving late, delayed, or not at all—presentations to paediatric emergency departments during covid-19 pandemic
Following the rapid spread of the covid-19 pandemic, health services across the world began operational planning for a predicted surge in attendances of covid-19. It quickly became clear however, that […]
John Middleton: Winter is coming—is the UK prepared?
This winter, the UK potentially faces a perfect storm of resurgent covid-19, winter flu, a large backlog of untreated long term conditions due to the pandemic, and excess cold-related mortality, […]
The recession should remind us that health and wealth are political choices
While health and longevity are matters of social justice and fairness, they are also cornerstones of economic productivity […]
Arabella L Simpkin: Promoting a culture of openness in healthcare
I was terrified. It was my first night shift with the prefix “Dr.” proudly adorned before my name, and though I’d feigned a confident start as I’d strapped the on-call […]
Shazad Amin: The Prevent policy has no place in modern healthcare
Prevent is part of the UK Government’s counter-terrorism strategy, and in 2015 it imposed a statutory duty for public sector employees to have “due regard to the need to prevent […]