I am a geriatrician, which means I spend my days with older people — usually polite, usually grateful — and a surprising amount of my work involves taking things away: the medications and interventions that no longer benefit the patient. It is good, fulfilling work. I would like to think my patients are fond of […]
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Where influence ends: A lesson for Clinical Leaders. By Paul Molyneux
Recently, I was discussing the Stoic dichotomy of control with a group of senior clinical leaders. Of several concepts we explored, this one seemed to create the most tension, as if I had unintentionally challenged a deeply held belief about what it means to lead. This surprised me. The Stoic argument that there are some […]
Eat last, count least – Five shifts to make maternal nutrition a question of justice in Asia and the Pacific. By Vani Sethi and Aashima Garg
Whether a woman is nourished before, during and after pregnancy is not a medical question. It is a question of whether her right to nutrition is honoured or set aside. Asia and the Pacific is where that question will be answered for most of the world’s women. More than a billion women of reproductive age […]
The Health Bill mends one link in the complaints chain and weakens another. By Vsevolod Shabad
A patient’s complaint could change something only if four things hold together: it is easy to raise, it is handled properly rather than lost, the body that receives it has a reason to act on it rather than bury it, and someone independent can check that it did. The Dash Review of patient safety, published […]
Beyond Compassion: Why Healthcare Leaders Need Epistemic Humility. By Maiedha Raza
Healthcare leadership has a paradox at its heart. We select, promote and celebrate leaders for their certainty, the confident diagnosis, the decisive plan, the unwavering strategic vision, yet we ask them to operate in environments of irreducible complexity. We reward knowing in a job that consists largely of ‘not knowing.’ Over the last decade, compassionate […]
The Impact of Nutrition Misinformation on Student Dietitians during Clinical Training. By Sophie Turigel and Alex Ruani
Nutrition misinformation has become an increasingly visible feature of modern life. From viral posts on Instagram and TikTok to the rise of overly restrictive diet trends and the growing use of AI chatbots for health advice, individuals are constantly exposed to conflicting messages about food, supplements, and health. While much of the conversation rightly discusses […]
Audit, registry and outcomes data: At the heart of strategic commissioning. By Iain Smith
Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) play a crucial leadership role in the English NHS. They are responsible for managing health systems across large geographical footprints and ensuring services are planned and delivered to meet local population needs.1 The UK government’s new NHS modernisation bill confirms strategic commissioning – the process of planning, purchasing and monitoring services […]
How trust is solving Nigeria’s maternal health crisis. By Klau Pakos and Jefferson Chen
Every two minutes a woman dies from giving life. This is not simply a statistic. It is a crisis that raises an uncomfortable question. How much of this crisis is a failure not of medicine, but of trust? Lafiya was founded as a direct response to this crisis. We build healthcare infrastructure for women and […]
Is inequality becoming the failure the NHS can afford? By Andi Orlowski
The NHS has rarely been more vocal about health inequalities. Reducing them is written into the mandate, the planning guidance and the language of every strategy. Yet a sequence of recent policy decisions, each reasonable when taken alone, is quietly assembling a system in which widening those inequalities is the path of least resistance. No […]
The Clinical Zugzwang: Moral Distress, Burnout and Patient Safety in Healthcare. By Mick Button, Anna Baverstock, Richard Duggins, and Paul Molyneux
‘Zugzwang. It’s when you have no good moves. But you still have to move’ Michael Chabon1 Introduction Today, many clinicians are not just working hard. They are working in conditions where the right thing to do may be clear, but the system makes it difficult, and sometimes impossible. Decision making becomes increasingly exhausting; the need […]