I’ve spent the last few weeks saying goodbye to my patients, letting them know, that after eight years, I will no longer be their GP. I don’t tell every patient I see, but instead restrict myself to telling those with whose care I’ve been more intimately involved in and those whom I’m advising to come […]
Latest articles
UNESCO sex education guidelines spark controversy : could medical humanities help?
According to UNESCO there are 111 million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases among people ages 10 to 24 globally each year. In addition, 4.4 million women age 15 to 19 seek abortions each year. As part of their on-going programme to try to improve this situation, and with a strong focus on trying to reduce […]
Medicine Unboxed Conference: October 10th 2009
This one day conference is the brainchild of Dr Sam Guglani, a clinical oncologist who specialises in the treatment of patients with breast, lung and brain cancers. You might think this would be enough to keep him busy, but working with people at such a vulnerable and formative time in their lives has clearly left […]
Integrity in health care: changing roles and relationships:17-18th September 2009
Coming up soon, the organisers of this conference, ‘Thinking about Health’, promise a different kind of conference: small, participative, interdisciplinary, and aimed at users, professionals and academics. It will explore the changing nature of roles and relationships in the NHS and their implications, focussing on the implications of change for the integrity and identity of […]
What if you haven’t got a flu friend?
There are always, within the population, individuals who have no one to collect medicines for them when they are ill. The group predominantly affected are the elderly but, especially in a situation in which a significant proportion of the population is affected by a flu pandemic, there will be others. In normal circumstances we have a […]
How does this painting make you feel?
There’s an old adage in medicine that if being with a patient makes you feel depressed then there’s a good chance that person is themselves depressed. So how does this painting make you feel? Depressed, or hopeful? Safe, or vulnerable? Alone, or observed? […]
Homelessness: what’s the right response?
Over the weekend, mixed with the harrowing coverage of the loss of soldiers’ lives in Afghanistan, and for news cycle reasons I’ve inadequate information to understand, the fate of London’s homeless population prior to the 2012 Olympics was discussed on television and in print. The organising committee of the London Games had apparently committed itself […]
In the UK government’s dystopian world patients told to ‘hang on’
If you want to refresh your memory of the comings and goings in Geroge Eliot’s classic, Middlemarch, then look no further than Professor Rosin’s analysis in the June 2009 issue of Medical Humanities. http://mh.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/35/1/43?q=w_mh_current_tab If you want to follow a contemporary equivalent of medical marketplace machinations then you need look no further than what is […]
Swine flu comes home: a GP’s tale
So there we were, early Wednesday afternoon, preparations under way for the evening surgeries, when the phones started to ring off the hook. Almost simultaneously we got an email from the PCT telling us that 143 children from the local primary and infant schools were sick with an as yet unidentified viral illness. Some were […]
A poetic license to practice (with thanks to Jenny Joseph)
“Health Warning” by Deborah Kirklin When I am a patient I will rarely take my medications But will always want my script instantly filled. And I shall spend hours reading all the health advice the Daily Mail has to offer And be sure to share it with my doctor, in detail and backed up by […]