At the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) annual conference in 2014, the chair of council, Maureen Baker, likened UK general practice to a dam that was at bursting point. […]
Latest articles
Richard Smith: Memory—the view from the humanities
To a neuroscientist, said Hugo Spiers, a psychologist from UCL chairing a meeting at LSE last week, memory is just a physical and chemical arrangement of synapses. That’s a supremely […]
The BMJ Today: When is humane discretion in the NHS an offence?
• While Jeremy Hunt prepares to tell the Tory party conference about his plans for a seven day NHS, one doctor suggests there are more immediate problems that he should […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—5 October 2015
NEJM 1 Oct 2015 Vol 373 1307 What will happen to all the overweight children and young adults we see around us? The honest answer is that nobody knows. There […]
Saffron Cordery: Spending review—time to do the maths
I can’t think of a time when the machinery of government has had to work harder. Austerity is a tough call for everyone. Looking out of the windows of NHS […]
Damian Roland: The power of social media to help clinicians and patients
In a pub in Dublin in 2012, Mike Cadogan, an Australian emergency physician coined a term that would take social media by storm. Free Open Access Meducation (FOAM) and its […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Adam’s navel
Zeus one day, having nothing better to do, released two eagles from the easternmost and westernmost edges of the world. Flying at the same speed, they met over Delphi, where […]
The BMJ Today: The active role clinicians can play in tackling society’s inequalities
Major update to HIV treatment guidance The World Health Organisation has released guidance which would dramatically affect the threshold at which patients with HIV are offered antiretroviral medication. At present, […]
Linda Kenward: Patients must be helped to feel safe in a healthcare setting
Doctors generally know about patient safety, how to undertake safe procedures or recognise unsafe practice and many doctors raise concerns over unsafe environments. It is important to doctors that they […]
Arthy Santhakumar: What makes the new global goals different?
The end is in sight. Or more accurately the beginning. Following three lengthy years of negotiations, we have a new (and improved) sustainable development agenda for global action—The Global Goals. […]