There is a lot of information out there and numerous contributions by official and unofficial organisations, never mind individual contributions. There are too many people who think their “single issue advice” should be followed. No one individual and this includes myself has the expertise required for management of all the complexities. Our government has the […]
Latest articles
El Greco by Dr Phil Welsby
El Greco the long and the tall of it Domenikos Theotokopoulos, or “The Greek”, absorbed an unusually wide variety of formal influences, from Byzantine icon painting to studies in Rome and Venice, yet he claimed to always draw “from life”, despite the striking distortions of angle and colour in his style. After experimenting with Renaissance […]
Diagnosis before treatment by Dr Philip Welsby
In the United Kingdom there is an unpredicted shortage of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). I t must have been unpredicted otherwise preventative actions would surely have occurred. So what went wrong? Traditional medical teaching is that ideally a diagnosis should precede any treatment and that a comprehensive diagnosis should comprise anatomical, functional and aetiological aspects. […]
Reflex reinforcement by Dr P Welsby
I disagree with the recommendation of Jendrassik’s manoeuvre (clenching the teeth or wringing the hands) to reinforce the reflexes as recently recommended in the British Medical Journal.1 These manoeuvres only allow two or three strikes before the patient becomes attuned. For reinforcement I found it useful to tell the patient to close their eyes and […]
Biobanked! By Dr P Welsby
Biobank is an organisation that has been following health developments “tracking health rather than screening” in a cohort of about 500,000 people since about 2006. I had agreed to have my parameters followed up until I am unavailable. Like 100,000 others I had also volunteered for enhanced surveillance. Accordingly I travelled 100 miles recently to […]
The Lemon code by Eric R. Gottlieb
During an afternoon lull in a wintry ICU shift, I went down to the cafeteria for a cup of coffee. As I wandered in, the code bells rang. “CODE BLUE. Women’s restroom, across from the gift shop.” I was right around the corner, and so I was first to arrive on the scene. I was […]
You really ought to contribute a BLOG by Phil Welsbey
You really ought to contribute a blog I have written about 100 papers and a lot of whimsical popular articles – the two not mutually exclusive because I used to challenge myself to smuggle in at least one humorous allusion into “proper papers.” On looking at my publication list I seem to have suffered from […]
How to enjoy retirement (Dr Phil Welsby)
Post-retirement I am now retired. Although exciting and stimulating at the time, being a fulltime NHS consultant was stressful. I was at everyone’s beck and call with exponentially increasing interruptions from telephone calls, pagers (as a clinician I believed that I had to carry a pager), e-mails, and mobile phones from staff and patients that […]
Diagnosis before treatment (Dr Phil Welsby)
Diagnosis before treatment In the United Kingdom there is an unpredicted shortage of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). I t must have been unpredicted otherwise preventative actions would surely have occurred. So what went wrong? Traditional medical teaching is that ideally a diagnosis should precede any treatment and that a comprehensive diagnosis should comprise anatomical, functional […]
Of handedness and haircuts (By Dr P Welsby)
Had a haircut today. Noticed that (a normally right handed) barber used his left hand for scissors and trimmers and I wondered why. String instrument players use their left hand (ie non-dominant hand usually) for the intricate finger board or fret work – the standard explanation being that melodic memory is usually in the non-dominant […]