Doctors have to make difficult clinical judgements about their patients on a daily basis and are trained to do so. This decision making develops with experience and the profession balances risk versus […]
Latest articles
Nick Hopkinson: Bad air, poor memory
One explanation that has been offered for the UK’s self-destructive decision to leave the European Union is that there are now few people left alive who can remember the ruined […]
Chris Ham and Don Berwick: An insight into frontline clinical care in acute hospitals
During the past year we have become increasingly aware of the pressures facing frontline clinicians working in acute hospitals. Each of us spent time in 2016 shadowing a general physician […]
Martin McKee: The Brexit White Paper—making Britain great again?
The long awaited Brexit White Paper has finally appeared. Yet Martin McKee finds it fails to shed any light on how Brexit’s consequences for health (or much else) will be […]
Terence Stephenson: Medical licensing assessment will keep us ahead of the field
The GMC is consulting on plans to develop a medical licensing assessment (MLA) that will assure and showcase the quality of medical education and practice across the UK. The thinking […]
Richard Smith: Dumfries and Galloway NHS 4: Community hospitals—loved by locals but seen as expensive by the authorities
Richard Smith visited and wrote about the NHS in Dumfries and Galloway in 1980, 1990, and 1999, and this series of blogs describes what he found in 2016. A feature […]
Liudas Jurkonis: How can corruption in the Lithuanian healthcare system be fought?
At a recent conference organized by POLA (Lithuanian Cancer Patient Coalition), I shared my insights regarding corruption in Lithuanian healthcare system. Due to the complexity of the issue, the main question […]
Daniel Gibney: Does the four hour target really reflect quality of care in UK emergency departments?
Since 2004 NHS emergency departments in the UK have been set “the four hour target.” The time from arrival to discharge and transfer out of the department should be no […]
Richard Smith: Time for pharmaceutical companies to help improve the publishing of science
There’s a growing consensus that publishing science through journals is a broken system. But who has the power to change it? Those who fund research have most power, which includes […]
Taryn Youngstein: Our NHS is not up for grabs, Mr Trump
A year ago, the idea that a property magnate come reality TV star could become the most powerful person on earth was unthinkable. A week ago, the idea that he […]