Sometimes it takes a visual cue, a short reference, or a good analogy for one to grasp the philosophy of a place. This was certainly so when I visited Aravind […]
NHS
Samir Dawlatly: Why is it hard to do the right thing?
“You want a blood test to make sure that there isn’t a reason why you’re tired?” I ask the patient sat in front of me, checking that I have understood […]
Tim Ballard: Will a tax on sugary drinks work?
Channel 4 recently aired a documentary by Jamie Oliver called Jamie’s Sugar Rush. Following on from his successful advocacy aimed at improving the nutritional quality of school meals he has […]
Abi Rimmer: Seven day services lack definition
What exactly are “seven day services?” This is something that I have been wondering ever since David Cameron announced in March that the NHS would run a seven day service […]
Samir Dawlatly: Could general practice survive without the NHS?
General practice is often described as the cornerstone of the NHS. Though its funding doesn’t necessarily reflect this, having its proportion of funding decline in recent years, 90% of all […]
Jim Sherifi: The tyranny of excellence
When one reads the history of any autocratic, despotic regime, one is always struck by how they managed to secure the submission of the educated and intelligent through remarkably simple […]
Phillippa Hentsch: A new way of paying for urgent and emergency care services
Different parts of the urgent and emergency care (UEC) pathway are paid for in different ways. Acute and specialist facilities are predominately funded through the national tariff, whereas UEC services […]
Samir Dawlatly: Can you measure what is good about general practice?
The Health Foundation, at the behest of the government, is gathering thoughts from professionals and the public on the use of data to inform the quality of primary care until […]
Dominic Patterson: Why general practice
General practice is in crisis. Those are the first words on my site whygp.uk—launched in July along with the hashtag #whyGP—which aims to be a space for positive messages about […]
Samir Dawlatly: There is no dementia wonder cure
The daughter of one of my patients booked an appointment to see me*. She often came to see me about her father who had lived alone ever since his wife […]