Recently I had the privilege of talking with the members of an emerging clinical commissioning group (CCG). (For those who don’t know, CCGs are groups of GPs who will have […]
Richard Smith
Richard Smith was the editor of The BMJ until 2004.
Richard Smith: You have a duty to complain
Have you made a complaint recently? I don’t mean moaning to your partner about the weather or your neighbour’s barking dog but a written, formal complaint. If you haven’t you […]
Richard Smith: A proposal that could be implemented today and save 5000 lives
I’ve had a brainwave. It’s a proposal that could be implemented today and save the UK 5000 lives a year (at a rough guess.) The proposal is to stop all […]
Richard Smith: An open letter to creative friends
Dear creative friends, Might you be interested to try and depict in some way—in a novel, play, series of poems, popular book, or whatever—a sustainable and believable world and how […]
Richard Smith: Death festival, day three
I’m up early and off to the death festival for the third day with a very light heart, and we are straight into practicalities. […]
Richard Smith: Death festival: day two
The second day of the festival began with Jude Kelly, the artistic director of the Southbank Centre, explaining that the festival is about “reshaping our ability to look death in […]
Richard Smith: Death festival: day one
The Southbank Centre, London’s art centre on the South Bank of the Thames, is holding a festival of death. The aim is “to look death in the eye…to confront mortality […]
Richard Smith: What has feminism done for global health?
The Lancet, the leading journal for global health, has mentioned feminism only twice in its 189 years . The BMJ hasn’t mentioned it at all. So that looks like some […]
Richard Smith: Thoughts on a shoeshining
One of the experiences that has made me think the most in the past week was having my shoes shined in Queretaro, Mexico. It was the lavish care, almost love, […]
Richard Smith: The 20 foot fence between the rich and poor worlds
I’m standing looking at a twenty foot high fence that at night is lit as brightly as daylight. It snakes away over dry hills to both east and west like […]