By Dr Anja Berglund, Internal Medicine Trainee at University Hospitals Sussex As I’m sitting down to write this, we are exactly one week from so-called “Black Wednesday” – a new cohort of Foundation Year 1 doctors starting on the wards. As always, I’m reminded of my own experiences in those first few months. Our […]
Latest articles
Should we Prescribe Dogs?
By Dr Matthew Doré, palliative care consultant at Northern Ireland Hospice & Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. Sometimes I wonder if we limit our prescriptions to ‘medications’ rather than ‘treatments’ and that prevents a more creative approach to being a doctor. Compassionate communities (1) is prescribing ‘compassion’ with amazing success and we were (pre covid) […]
Homecoming
By Heather Trickey Hey! Sit down! Eat! Let’s outrun all claims of sleep to tell our stranger stories. Pour wine. Break bread. Tell me about your heart. Take mine. After all, I’ve almost known you all this time. You, who were abroad on adventure, encompassing your part, taking in, absorbing your own commonwealth […]
Schrodinger’s Chimney; the nature of control
By Dr Joseph Hawkins, Consultant in Palliative Medicine Woking and Sam Beare Hospice, Honorary consultant Ashford and St Peter’s hospital Foundation Trust. Email: Joseph.hawkins@nhs.net When talking with a neighbour she remarked that her chimney was tilting; I looked and so it was. When I looked back at her she smiled and shrugged: ‘There are worse […]
Do Not Attempt Resuscitation decisions and the need for regulation in Ireland
By Dr Lucy M. Davis, School of Law, University of Limerick, Ireland. Email: lucy.davis@ul.ie and lucymdavis@yahoo.com Twitter: @LucyMDavis “Why did you choose to research DNAR orders?” This was one of the first questions raised by examiners when I defended my PhD thesis. A standard question for most PhD viva voce exams and definitely, a valid question for my […]
Chronative care – Care in time
By Dr Matthew Doré, palliative care consultant at Northern Ireland Hospice & Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. “They have been in hospice for a month,” is the phrase which is sometimes spoken aloud but more often is in thought and generally implies the patient has had their time and should be discharged now. I want […]
Five tips on how to write for BMJ SPC Forum
By Professor Mark Taubert, BMJ SPC Journal Editor & Forum Curator Twitter Introduction Thinking of writing an article for our highly accessed BMJ SPC Forum series? Then please read on. forum (noun) · forums (plural noun) · fora (plural noun) a meeting or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged: “we hope these pages […]
A call to action! Living and dying with Cystic Fibrosis – more research is needed
By Dr Mary Miller, Department of palliative care, Sir Michael Sobell House, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, OX3 7LE, UK and Honorary senior clinical lecturer, Nuffield department of medicine, Oxford University, UK Email: Mary.miller@ouh.nhs.uk and Mary.miller@ndm.ox.ac.uk Phone: +44 1865 225858 Orcid ID: 0000-0002-2026-6397 Twitter: @dr_mary_miller Colleagues working in Cystic Fibrosis are superb […]
The Sound of covid-19: Binaural Recordings of a Palliative Care Ward Round in a Cancer Hospital.
Authors: Prof. Mark Taubert, Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Velindre University NHS Trust & Cardiff University School of Medicine, Cardiff, UK Mr Glenn Davidson, Artstation, Cardiff, UK Dr. Mike Fedeski, Artstation, Cardiff, UK Dr. Jelle van Gurp, Coordinator Clinical Ethics Radboud University Medical Centre; Assistant professor Ethics of Healthcare, Nijmegen, Netherlands The pandemic has created an […]
The Astronomical Approach to Advance Care Planning
By Dr Joseph Hawkins, consultant in palliative medicine Woking and Sam Beare Hospice and honorary consultant at St Peter’s Hospital; Surrey, England In the steppes of Kazaghstan a very special launch is happening- the British space craft: End of Life Services by Astroscale is due to start its mission of clearing defunct satellites from earth […]