I give a lot of talks, probably far too many. Sometimes they go well. Sometimes they are awful. A recent talk I gave was a flop. I failed to deliver […]
Richard Smith
Richard Smith was the editor of The BMJ until 2004.
Richard Smith: Should the NHS be scrapped?
I’ve just been listening to a report on the radio about people with learning disorders dying 20 years prematurely because the NHS doesn’t treat them adequately. The Care Quality Commission […]
Richard Smith: 14 years at the helm of NICE
“You’ll do, but you’re not my first choice,” said Frank Dobson then Secretary of State for Health when he appointed Mike Rawlins as the first chairman of the National Institute […]
Richard Smith: Nestlé—a force for good or ill?
Nestlé, one of the world’s largest food companies, sells 1.2 billion products a day. This gives it huge potential for good or ill in a world where a billion people […]
Richard Smith: The NHS and the private sector: a 70 year conversation
We’ve been having this conversation since at least 1945, said a member of the audience at this week’s Cambridge Health Network meeting on partnerships between the NHS and the private […]
Richard Smith: Research and the Arab Spring
The Arab world, despite its proud intellectual history and some of its countries being among the richest in the world, produces little research. Now the Arab Spring has shaken the […]
Richard Smith: Why interpreters and translators matter so much
When Willie Ramirez was admitted to hospital in Florida his Spanish speaking family said he was intoxicado. There is no exact equivalent of intoxicado in English. It doesn’t mean intoxicated, […]
Richard Smith: Are Glaswegians the Aboriginals of Europe?
Harry Burns, the chief medical officer of Scotland and one of medicine’s philosophers, has spent a lot of time trying to understand why Scotland has such poor health and what […]
Richard Smith: Will entrepreneurs save the NHS?
All the political parties and those at the top of the NHS see an important role for entrepreneurs in the latest version of the health service. Those labouring within the […]
Richard Smith: Non communicable disease and sustainable development
There is a sense that if you are not working at something that helps counter climate change (or climate disruption, as it should be called) then you are wasting your […]