People think public health is all (lecturing the masses on) sex, drugs, and alcohol. Even fellow clinicians tend to forget about defined roles such as the public health specialist. These individuals focus […]
NHS
Florence Wilcock: Improving maternity care is everybody’s business
Personalised care. Continuity of care. Safer care. Better postnatal and perinatal mental healthcare. Multiprofessional working. Working across boundaries. A fair payment system. This vision of care could apply to pretty […]
Ahmed Rashid: The UK junior doctor contract dispute in 10 hashtags
Hashtag: #iminworkjeremy Description: When Jeremy Hunt (Secretary of State for health) accused the NHS of having a “Monday to Friday culture,” healthcare workers from across the country posted selfies of […]
Andrew Green: Patients, GPs, and private medical insurance
You know, it’s hard not to feel sorry for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). Set up to allow GPs to commission services for their patients—as the ones with the best knowledge […]
Matthew Honeyman: Saving paper, saving money, or transforming care?
Yesterday we published a briefing on the digital agenda that has been pursued by the NHS since 2013 – the year Secretary of State for health Jeremy Hunt challenged the NHS to […]
David Shaw: Delaying surgery for obese and smoking patients is illogical and unethical
It was recently reported that Vale of York clinical commissioning group (CCG) plans to delay all elective surgery for obese patients for a year until they lose 10% of their […]
Ian R Barker: Compassion fatigue—the neglected problem
Compassion fatigue—also known as vicarious traumatisation results in a gradual reduction in compassion over time. It is more common in those dealing with trauma or caring for close relatives (1). […]
Nick Hopkinson: Saving the NHS—a lesson from Carthage
Cato the Elder is said to have concluded every speech he made in the Roman Senate, regardless of the topic, with “Delenda est Carthago”—Carthage must be destroyed. In answering the […]
Health apps and how to evaluate them: Review of the PHE 2016 conference, part two
Embedded in the NHS Five Year Forward View is a sleek, bullet pointed ministerial promise: “an expanding set of NHS accredited health apps that patients will be able to use […]
Using behavioural science and digital technology to “nudge”: Review of the PHE 2016 conference, part one
Being a GP at a public health conference is, I imagine, like being a proctologist at a plumbers’ convention: familiar subject matter, different perspective. I spend a lot of my […]