Jim Thomas On my bookshelves there is a book titled Psychotherapy and Mental Handicap, the title of the book made me cringe when it came out in 1992. Thankfully and rightly we have now mainly moved past using those sorts of old-fashioned descriptions, but when I got beyond the title I found there were a […]
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The trial of Astrazeneca by Ammara Hughes
This is the sixth blog by Dr Ammara Hughes on Primary Care Leadership and COVID vaccination. Read the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth blogs in the series. Drugs are a funny old thing. One minute, they’re the best thing since sliced bread. The next, you’d rather be sticking hot needles in your eyes than ever consider […]
The value of health professional networks in tackling vaccine hesitancy; an engagement exercise with the Chief Medical Officer by Samia Latif and colleagues
‘If you want to go fast, go alone If you want to go far, go with others’ (African proverb) Much has been said and written about vaccine hesitancy and health inequalities in Black, Asian, and ethnic minority (BAME) communities, particularly during the Covid pandemic. Lower vaccine uptake and access to health services by BAME communities […]
Time for a pop-up! by Ammara Hughes
This is the fifth blog by Dr Ammara Hughes on Primary Care Leadership and COVID vaccination. Read the first, second, third, and fourth blogs in the series. Pop-ups. The de rigeur of this millennium. You know you’ve made it if you have a farmer’s market or street market within a mile radius of you. We can’t […]
Creating tomorrow today: seven simple rules for leaders. Blog three: Root our transformation efforts in a sense of belonging by Helen Bevan and Göran Henriks
We have created a set of “seven simple rules” for leaders who want to create tomorrow today, based on our collective learning over seven decades as leaders and internal change agents in the health and care systems in England and Sweden and the work we have done with leaders in health and care in many […]
Happy New Year! The debacle of second doses by Ammara Hughes
This is the fourth blog by Dr Ammara Hughes on Primary Care Leadership and COVID vaccination. Read the first, second, and third blogs in the series. 30 December 2020 A much needed long bank holiday this Christmas. Not as happy as it should have been for many. A second wave of COVID was in full […]
When the cupcakes are not enough. The case for improving delirium awareness through involving all carers by Shibley Rahman
I like cupcakes a lot, but photos of them on Twitter in support of “World Delirium Awareness Day” today will not effect the change we need to see in delirium care. How can this change actually take place? I believe strongly that organisations should primarily look beyond their immediate organisation, and include family carers in […]
Can Swiss Cheese Modelling be used to design processes that protect against workplace discrimination? by Ali Raza
According to the ‘Swiss Cheese Model’ propounded by James Reason, complex systems can yield losses when flaws in defences against hazards become aligned. Flaws in latent conditions at the ‘blunt’ organisational end permit active failures to be committed at the ‘sharp end’ by individuals (1). The ‘Swiss Cheese’ approach has commonly been regarded to have […]
What has Fluffy got to do with integration? by Jim Thomas
My favourite character in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books is Fluffy, the three headed dog. Now Fluffy might not have a lot to say and Fluffy’s part is small. But Fluffy stands in the way of Harry, Hermione and Ron in their quest. The only way to get past Fluffy is to play him music. […]
Social care, leadership and COVID: a tangled mix by Richard Humphries and Nicholas Timmins
COVID-19 has thrown social care in England into the spotlight in a way that nobody would have wanted. The death toll in care homes, in people’s own homes, and among care staff. The desperate early struggle to get personal protective equipment to carers that mirrored the problems in the NHS, but at times seemed worse. […]